SEABED AUTHORITY TO USE 1998 UN SCALE IN ASSESSING STATES' CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 1999
Press Release
SEA/1610*
SEABED AUTHORITY TO USE 1998 UN SCALE IN ASSESSING STATES' CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 1999
19981013 Authority's Assembly Acts by Vote After Rejecting Russian Proposal to Utilize 1999 ScaleNEW YORK, 13 October (International Seabed Authority) -- The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority voted this morning to use the United Nations scale of assessments for 1998 when establishing the amounts which its member States will be required to pay towards the Authority's 1999 budget. The result of the show-of-hands vote was 76 in favour to 3 against (Poland, Russian Federation, Ukraine), with two abstentions (Slovakia, Slovenia).
It took this action after rejecting two amendments by the Russian Federation that would have applied the 1999 United Nations scale to next year's budget and the 1998 scale to this year's budget. The votes on these amendments, also by show of hands, were identical: 5 in favour (Poland, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine) to 76 against, with no abstentions.
The Assembly acted at the end of two days of meetings held at United Nations Headquarters. Its two meetings, held yesterday afternoon (12 October) and this morning, constituted the third part of the Assembly's fourth annual session, which has now concluded.
The meetings were convened because the Assembly, at its regular meetings in August at the Authority's headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, did not have a quorum to vote on the Russian proposal and to approve a scale. At today's meeting, the Assembly, acting without objection, accepted credentials from 83 of its member States, of which a two-thirds majority of 55 was needed to take decisions on financial matters.
The votes taken today were the first ever in the Assembly, which is obligated by its governing rules to seek consensus wherever possible before resorting to a vote. The Assembly President, Tadeusz Bachleda-Curus (Poland), announced this morning that attempts to reach a consensus in meetings held
* Press Release SEA/1681 of 14 September should have been numbered SEA/1609.
yesterday by several regional groups had been unsuccessful. The Russian Federation declined today to accept a suggestion by Japan that it not press for a vote.
The decision taken today was based on a recommendation by the 36-member Council of the Authority, taken at Kingston in August. The vote in the Council, also requested by the Russian Federation, was 26 to 3 (Poland, Russian Federation, Ukraine).
Explaining its proposal to use the 1999 United Nations scale for the 1999 budget, the representative of the Russian Federation stated that such a decision would not establish a practice, as some delegations feared, since the issue of principle could be examined when the Authority's Finance Committee met next year. Rather, it would be only logical to apply to the 1999 budget a scale which the United Nations General Assembly had set for its own budget. Moreover, the practice that the Russian Federation advocated was being followed by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which like the Seabed Authority has been established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Opposing this view, Japan and the Republic of Korea observed that a number of other organizations in the United Nations system applied a one-year lag between budget and scale. If this practice were to be abandoned, the Authority would face a problem every three years when, at its customary August session, there would be no United Nations scale for the following year until the General Assembly adopted one in December.
[The General Assembly has followed the practice of approving scales for three-year periods, including year-to-year adjustments reflecting changes in the capacity of United Nations Members to pay. Separate scales for 1998, 1999 and 2000 were approved by the General Assembly in resolution 52/215 of 22 December 1997.]
The scale decided on today fixes the percentage which each of the 138 members of the Authority will be assessed for 1999. It will be applied to a 1999 budget of $5,011,700, approved by the Assembly without a vote in August. According to today's decision, the scale will be adjusted to account for differences between the Authority's membership and that of the United Nations.
Beginning this year, the Authority, an autonomous body having a relationship agreement with the United Nations, has been financing its operations through its own budget, separate from that of the United Nations.
At the end of this morning's meeting, the Secretary-General of the Authority, Satya N. Nandan, repeated an appeal he had made during the Authority's earlier meetings in Kingston, that member States which had not yet
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paid towards the 1998 budget should do so as soon as possible. "We will very much appreciate if you will honour your obligations to the Authority", he stated.
The Authority is due to hold its next session at Kingston beginning 9 August 1999, when it will continue work on draft regulations governing exploration of the international seabed area and consider the Authority's budget for the year 2000.
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