ENB:09:65
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COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, : WORKING GROUPS AND INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS
The Committee of the Whole (COW), chaired by Louis Currat (Switzerland), met throughout the first week and into the second to discuss each agenda item. Due to the large agenda and number of participants wishing to make interventions, statements were limited at times to 1-2 minutes and delegates were asked to submit their proposals in writing.
Two working groups were formed during the first week, neither of which was to meet at the same time. The Open-ended Working Group on Agricultural Biodiversity was chaired by Manfred Schneider (Austria). Braulio de Souza Dias (Brazil) chaired a drafting group for this Working Group. The Working Group on Financial Issues was chaired by Mohammad Reza Salamat (Iran). Pierre Roch (Switzerland) served as interim chair for several meetings of this Group. Additional groups formed during the first week included one that addressed pending issues, chaired by Suzana Guziova (Slovakia), and the medium-term programme of work and budget, chaired by John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda). The Secretariat conducted informal consultations over the weekend (9-10 November) to draft decisions on the basis of interventions in the COW and written submissions. The various working groups continued to meet during the second week, with a number of informal consultations evolving into working and drafting groups on 11 and 12 November. The groups on financial issues and the budget met until 8:30 pm on Thursday, 14 November, at which time delegates had reached provisional agreement on all issues before COP-3.
The Committee of the Whole met on 12 and 13 November to adopt the draft decisions that had been forwarded by the working and consultation groups. They adopted all decisions except for three on financial issues. The COW agreed to forward the final texts on these three decisions directly to the Plenary, which met on 15 November and adopted all draft decisions. The budget decision was also adopted by the Plenary.
The following section, which is organized by agenda item, describes the debates and final decisions taken by COP-3.