ENB:09:15
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WORKING GROUP II
The Chair, Amb. Koester, introduced the four items that were addressed by the Group: the list of developing countries; the report of the Chair of Contact Group I on outstanding issues; the financial rules governing the funding of the Secretariat concerning the budget; and, the continuation of discussion of the draft report of Working Group II.
LIST OF DEVELOPED COUNTRIES: The list of developed countries, accepted in principle on Tuesday, had been formalized into document UNEP/CBD/IC/2/WG.II/L.4 and was adopted without amendment.
REPORT OF CONTACT GROUP I
The Chair, Mr. Uppenbrink, reported on the one outstanding matter from the Group. He recalled that his Contact Group had addressed two issues: the financial rules of the trust fund, that were adopted Tuesday; and, the budgetary matters that had now produced a draft text. He explained that it was not the mandate, and because of the uncertainty surrounding the Secretariat's location and its tasks, it was not within the scope of the Contact Group, to develop a budget. Rather, the document is intended to provide guidance to the Secretariat in developing its budget. The document identifies indicative budget components and requests the Interim Secretariat to prepare a detailed draft budget for distribution before the first COP.
FINANCIAL RULES-BUDGET: The Financial Rules Governing the Funding of the Secretariat of the CBD-Budgetary matters (UNEP/CBD.IC/2/WG.II.L.3) was adopted in principle without discussion, following Mr. Uppenbrink's report. Editorial changes will be made before it is formally adopted.
DRAFT REPORT OF WORKING GROUP II
The Working Group began their consideration of the second item of the draft report of the Group: agenda item 4.1.5, the policy, strategy, programme priorities and eligibility criteria regarding access to and utilization of financial resources. The text developed after discussion in both the Working Group and Contact Group on this item is focused on programme priorities. As a consequence, the only record of discussion about the other issues will be this draft report. The Chair noted that the paragraph-by-paragraph adoption is extremely slow.