SEABED COUNCIL ENDORSES 2001-2002 BUDGET OF $10.5 MILLION; COMPLETES RULES OF LEGAL AND TECHNICAL COMMISSION
Press Release
SEA/1691
SEABED COUNCIL ENDORSES 2001-2002 BUDGET OF $10.5 MILLION; COMPLETES RULES OF LEGAL AND TECHNICAL COMMISSION
20000714(Received from International Seabed Authority)
(Kingston, 13 July) -- The Council of the International Seabed Authority, meeting this morning in Kingston, recommended approval by the Assembly of a $10,506,400 budget of the Authority for the years 2001 and 2002. The sum, in the amount proposed by Secretary-General Satya N. Nandan, represents the first biennial budget of the Authority, which previously set its budget annually.
On another topic, the Council approved a complete set of rules for the Legal and Technical Commission, including two new rules envisaging open meetings of that body when it discusses issues of general interest and attendance by government representatives at meetings devoted to environmental emergencies affecting their country. The new rules were the product of private negotiations that achieved a compromise on these contentious issues earlier this week.
The Council received and took note of a report by the Commission on the results of its work at the current session. The Commission endorsed a proposal by the Secretary-General to explore outside participation in a proposed international cooperative programme for environmental protection of the international seabed and waters in connection with deep seabed exploration and mining.
The Council also agreed that member States should be advised to propose candidates for the Commission at least two months before next years session of the Council, which is to elect a new slate of members of that body. Delegates exchanged views on a possible change in the size of the Commission, which now has 23 members.
For want of documentation in all languages, the Council put off to this afternoon a decision approving conclusively the Authoritys Staff Regulations, which it had approved provisionally on Tuesday, 11 July.
The Council will meet again at 3 p.m. today to act on draft regulations for prospecting and exploration for polymetallic nodules in the international seabed area. It will have before it a document
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spelling out the compromise results of private negotiations that ended yesterday, 12 July.
Finances of the Authority
In its financial decision this morning (original text in document ISBA/6/C/L.5), the Council recommended that the Assembly adopt a budget of $10,506,400 for the two years 2001-2002. This is the amount proposed by the Secretary-General (ISBA/6/A/7-ISBA/6/C/4) and endorsed by the Finance Committee (ISBA/6/A/13-ISBA/6/C/6).
Budgetary assessments of the 133 member States, split evenly between the two years, would thus total $5,253,200 a year, compared to the 2000 budget of $5,175,200 approved by the Assembly last August. Savings in expenditures during 2000 might reduce the total that members will be asked to pay next year, the Finance Committee indicated.
In his budget proposal, the Secretary-General estimated the administrative and operational share at $8.9 million, with the remaining $1.6 million for servicing the annual meetings of the Authority. The Finance Committee considered that the conference-servicing total would suffice whether the Authority decided to meet for two or three weeks in either year. The Assembly is expected to set the dates for its 2001 session tomorrow, 14 July, the closing day of its present session, when it will also consider the Councils recommendations on the budget.
According to the Secretary-Generals proposals, personnel costs of $7.1 million will make up the bulk of the budget, paying for the current level of 37 posts.
The Council recommended that the Authoritys scale of assessment continue to be based on that used by the United Nations. The assessment of the newest member, Nicaragua, would be set at $297 for 2000, covering the part of the year since it joined in June.
The Council recommended that the Working Capital Fund be raised from $392,000 to $438,000, maintaining its level at one-twelfth of annual estimated expenditures. Member States would be asked to pay the $46,000 increase and also to make up a shortfall of $58,635 due to the inadvertent failure to bill the seven States that had left the Authority in 1998 when the status of provisional membership expired for countries that had not ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Fund is used as a source of cash advances to meet expenses until member States pay their dues.
The Council asked the Assembly to appeal to those States as well as present members to pay their budgetary arrears as soon as possible. The Finance Committee reported that arrears amounted to $1.5 million, of which $1.3 million dated to 1998 (when the provisional members
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left). (A secretariat paper on the status of contributions lists the United States as owing $1.2 million.)
Finally, the Council recommended that the firm KPMG Peat Marwick, which had audited last years accounts, be appointed to audit the Authority for 2000. Reporting on the results of the 1999 audit, the Finance Committee said the auditor had found the Authoritys financial statements to be in order. The secretariat had also informed the Committee of changes being made as a result of the audit, including tighter controls on overtime costs and the continued maintenance of non- expendable property records. The Committee noted improvements in the administration of the Authority since the last audit. At the suggestion of Japan this morning, as modified by Secretary-General Nandan, the Council added a phrase that would have the Assembly note the Finance Committees observations and recommendations on the audit.
The Finance Committee met in closed session last week, 6 and 7 July, with Domenico da Empoli (Italy) re-elected as its Chairman. Jamaica presented its report to the Council today.
This morning, Japan proposed but later withdrew an addition that would have had the Assembly appropriate half of the budget total for 2001 and authorize the Secretary-General to enter into commitments in 2002 for the balance. The aim, Japan stated, was to comply with a financial regulation requiring appropriations to be made annually. Secretary-General Nandan expressed concern that the addition would require the Finance Committee to meet next year to examine a separate appropriation for 2002, contrary to the intention of biennial budgeting. He gave an assurance that members would be billed annually for the expenditures.
Rules of Legal and Technical Commission
The two rules added today to the rules of procedure of the Legal and Technical Commission (full text in ISBA/6/C/L.4) are the result of a compromise - hammered out during informal consultations over the last several days -- regarding two issues on which the Council had been unable to reach consensus last August when it adopted the rest of the rules. These issues relate to private versus open meetings of the Commission, and the participation in some of its meetings by members of the Authority. Included in the second of these rules is a new procedure for convening the Commission to deal with environmental emergencies.
Rule six, on meetings, supplements the text which the Council considered last year, proposed by the Commission itself. That text, retained in the approved version, reads: The meetings of the Commission shall be held in private unless the Commission decides otherwise. To this the Council added today: The Commission shall take into account the desirability of holding open meetings when issues
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of general interest to members of the Authority, which do not involve the discussion of confidential information, are being discussed.
Rule 53, on participation by members of the Authority and entities carrying out activities in the international seabed area, retains two paragraphs from last years text, revises the third and adds a paragraph on environmental emergencies. The new paragraph reads:
Any member of the Authority may make a request to the Secretary-General to convene a meeting of the Commission in order to consider a matter of particular concern to that member involving an environmental emergency. The Secretary-General shall convene the Commission which shall give urgent consideration to such a matter and report to the Council as soon as possible with its findings and recommendations. Any member concerned with such a matter has the right to send a representative to the meeting of the Commission to express its views on the matter without participation in decision-making, although the Commission may determine that such presence be limited at certain stages when confidential information is being discussed.
Today, on the proposal of Chile, the Council accepted a change in rule 53 according to which a State has the right to - rather than may - send a representative to a Commission meeting.
A provision on convening the Commission to deal with environmental emergencies was originally proposed last August by Chile, with subsequent additions by the Russian Federation and the Secretary- General. That would have required a decision by the Council to convene the Commission.
The other change in the rule is a reworded version of a paragraph in the Commissions 1999 text entitling members of the Authority to attend Commission meetings on matters particularly affecting them. It now reads:
Any member of the Authority may, with the permission of the Commission, send a representative to attend a meeting of the Commission when a matter particularly affecting such member is under consideration. For the purpose of facilitating the work of the Commission, such representative shall be allowed to express his or her views on any such matter being considered by the Commission.
The Commissions version would have entitled Authority members to request attendance, to be granted on the Chairmans invitation.
The two paragraphs retained without change authorize the Commission to invite any State or seabed entity for the purposes of
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consultation and collaboration, and provide that, when Commission members carry out their function of supervision and inspection of seabed activities by contractors, they shall be accompanied by a representative of any member State or other party concerned on the request of that State or party.
By virtue of todays Council decision, taken without objection, the full set of 54 rules will enter into force today. The Commission has been operating since last August under the 52 rules agreed provisionally at that time.
The main functions of the Commission are to review applications for plans of work for exploration in the international seabed area and to advise the Council on such applications, as well as to make recommendations on protection of the marine environment and monitor compliance with the Authoritys seabed regulations. Members of the Commission are elected by the Council for a five-year term; they serve as experts in their personal capacity rather than as representatives of States.
Report of Legal and Technical Commission
The report (ISBA/6/C/11) presented this morning by Boris Winterhalter (Finland), Vice-Chairman of the Legal and Technical Commission, covered the results of its three closed meetings held last week in Kingston under its newly elected Chairman, Mrs. Inge Zaamwani (Namibia). The Commission considered draft guidelines for assessing the possible environmental impacts of polymetallic nodule exploration in the international seabed area, periodic reports by India and the Republic of Korea on their deep seabed activities, a report by the Republic of Korea on its training programme and a proposal by the Secretary-General on international cooperation to protect the seabed environment.
The draft environmental guidelines, on which the Commission is to continue work next year, would describe procedures for acquiring baseline data, including monitoring during and after seabed activities that might damage the environment. They are intended to facilitate reporting to the Authority by contractors.
The Commission said it could only note the receipt of reports by India and the Republic of Korea on their seabed activities, since the Authority had not yet adopted exploration regulations (which will provide for consideration of such reports by the Commission).
The Republic of Korea reported on its recent nine-and-a-half month training programme for four trainees from developing countries, which included both onboard and theoretical studies. The Commission recommended that the secretariat compile a report on the whereabouts of
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all trainees who had participated since 1990 in programmes organized by pioneer seabed investors. (Such programmes are mandated by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.) The Commission also suggested that the secretariat consider organizing a refresher course or workshop for them.
The Commission endorsed a proposal by the Secretary-General to establish an international framework and cooperation in environmental protection of the international seabed and waters in connection with deep seabed exploration and mining. It recommended that he negotiate with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the World Bank, Pioneer and other potential investors to seek their participation. (GEF is a multilateral funding mechanism dedicated to promoting global environmental protection within a framework of sustainable development by providing new and additional grant and concessional funding.)
Finally, the Commission suggested that, when the Council elects next year the new membership of the expert body, States should nominate lawyers, engineers with practical experience in offshore operations, geologists and biologists conversant with the deep sea, as well as environmental scientists. The latter two disciplines were missing from the current membership, it observed.
Commenting on the report, Mexico suggested that national and internal waters be included in the proposed environmental programme.
The Council took note of this report today.
The Russian Federation raised the issue of the election of members of the Commission, remarking that care must be taken to ensure professional competence and to guarantee that certain areas of expertise would be represented. Noting that the term of office of current members expired next year, the representative suggested that States should submit the names of candidates at least three months before the election to be held next year in the Council, with their curricula vitae to be sent at least two months in advance.
Secretary-General Nandan suggested that nominations reach the secretariat at least two months in advance of the next session, after which the list of candidates and their curricula vitae would be circulated to Authority members.
Malta, endorsing the idea of a deadline, said the time frame would allow the Authority to assess the candidates as a whole in order to address the concerns in the Commissions report. Other delegations, including those of Indonesia and Senegal, also regarded the proposal as useful. Mexico suggested the elections be held towards the end of the 2001 session so that representatives would have time to discuss the matter.
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Secretary-General Nandan, noting that the Commission was a body of experts, saw the need for a balance between expertise and geographical representation. While it was important for the Commission to be broadly representative, numbers and distribution would of necessity vary from one election to the next.
In the view of Chile, the lead-time would also allow the Authority to establish the absence of any financial interest in seabed mining enterprises on the part of candidates and ensure equitable geographical distribution of members.
Several delegations raised questions about the size of the Commission during its next term. Indonesia and Mexico recommended reverting to a 15-member body, with increases if necessary, as had happened in the past. Others, including Argentina and Chile, voiced concern that decreasing the number of members might aggravate problems already encountered due to absenteeism. Some felt that decisions on numbers and representation on the Commission should be settled before nominations were submitted, while others thought it premature to take a decision without an overall picture of the candidates put forward. Secretary-General Nandan and others called attention to the problems that would arise in fixing the geographical allocation of seats in a smaller body.
With regard to the problem of absenteeism on the Commission, the Secretary-General reported that, in response to the Councils request at the last session, he had written to three members of the Commission who had often been absent. One State had replaced its candidate at the beginning of this months session, but he had received no response from the other two. A second letter had been sent to these members warning them that their failure to respond might result in the Council declaring their seats vacant.
The President of the Council declared that his statement to the Assembly would contain the recommendation that all nominations for the Legal and Technical Commission elections should be submitted no later than two months before the next meeting of the Council.
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