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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation Thirtieth Session of OPCW Executive Council, September 10-13
Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), The Hague, September 10-13. I. OPCW Press Release'Thirtieth Session of the Executive Council Concludes', OPCW Press Release, Number 58 (2002), September 18. The Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons held its Thirtieth Session from 10 to 13 September 2002 in The Hague, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Lionel Fernando of Sri Lanka. In his first address to the Council, the Director-General, Mr. Rogelio Pfirter, stressed the need for "re-establishment of a sense of purpose within the Organisation, and the re-creation of an atmosphere of confidence and cooperation between the Secretariat and Member States". The Director-General also informed the Council that the Secretariat "will be carrying out the programme of inspections from now until the end of the year, as originally planned." This session marked significant progress with the adoption by the Council of a record number of decisions on essential matters, some of which had remained on the Council's agenda for a long time. The Council adopted two combined plans for destruction and verification of chemical weapons production facilities in the Russian Federation, as well as seven facility agreements (five for chemical weapons destruction facilities in the United States of America and two for Schedule 1 facilities - one in Yugoslavia and another in South Africa), and recommended to the Conference of the States Parties the adoption of five conversion requests for chemical weapons production facilities in the Russian Federation, as well as of the agreed detailed plan for the verification of destruction of chemical weapons at Unit 1 of the Gorny chemical weapons destruction facility in the Russian Federation. The Council also adopted an important decision on guidelines for declarations of aggregate national data for the production, consumption, import and export of Schedule 2 chemicals and for import and export of Schedule 3 chemicals, which would contribute to the consistent application of the Convention's provisions in all States Parties. Considerable time was devoted to the OPCW's 2003 programme of work and budget. While there was a growing convergence of views on the need for a significant increase in the size of the OPCW's budget for next year, final decisions could not be taken. The Council decided to return to this urgent matter at its next meeting scheduled for 3 October with a view to recommending the draft budget to the Conference of the States Parties for adoption. The Council reviewed the Director-General's report on national implementation measures and expressed concern that only 47% of States Parties had fulfilled their obligation under the Convention to inform the Organisation of their implementing measures. The Council urged those States Parties which have not yet done so to fulfil that obligation, and requested the Secretariat, within existing resources, to continue contacting such States Parties as a matter of urgency. ... II. Statement by OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter, September 10'Opening statement by the Director-General to the Executive Council at its Thirtieth Session', EC-30/DG.4, September 10; OPCW website, http://www.opcw.org. 1. Two months ago, the Conference of States Parties convened in aspecial session, and designated me Director-General of our Organisation. 2. Sixty days have passed since then - sixty days to learn, to thoroughly analyse the host of issues before us at the Technical Secretariat, to set our priorities right, to look into the outstanding issues and, if possible, envisage solutions to them. 3. In this process, I have been fortunate to count on the support of a solid team of international civil servants, who are devoted to the cause of chemical disarmament. Thanks to them, my job has been significantly easier. 4. I stand today before the Executive Council to present my own initial assessment of the issues facing the OPCW. In the past few weeks, I have tried to concentrate on the issues that I felt required immediate attention. 5. The re-establishment of a sense of purpose within the Organisation, and the re-creation of an atmosphere of confidence and cooperation between the Secretariat and Member States have figured prominently in my agenda. I hope that I have made some progress in these crucial aspects of our work. 6. These are practical matters. They are not of a philosophical nature. 7. But these are issues that involve the ability of the OPCW to remain a viable, dynamic instrument to achieve the objectives set up by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Housekeeping and Good Management8. Let me start with some basic housekeeping, and in particular, with the administration of our resources, which are provided by your governments and enable us to do what the Convention mandates. 9. Here, as you know, a host of difficult questions has been piling up for a number of years. In some cases, remedies are at hand, and they are quite painless. In some others, important decisions will have to be made. 10. I will ask for your cooperation in order to act accordingly, and I can guarantee that, in order to facilitate these decisions, you will be provided with the fullest possible presentation of the facts surrounding any given question. 11. On the day of my election, I said that transparency would be one of my guiding principles. So let me share the facts with you. Financial Issues12.It is clear to all that the programme of work has been executed at a reduced pace, due to the scarcity of funds. 13. This directly reflects a number of reasons, some political and some financial. In any case, urgent action was, and is, needed. 14. When I took office, consultations on the budget were well under way. A draft had already been issued by the Secretariat. 15.My personal involvement in the exercise has, therefore, come about only recently, and has been focused on ensuring that we have the bare minimum resources we need to continue operating in a reasonable way. The increase we are now putting on the table, as I hope you will recognise, is a sharp reduction from the 80 million euros which were originally proposed, and has brought the budget down to 69 million euros. 16. The actual increase over the approved 2002 budget of 64 million euros is, therefore, well below the 10% that some have mentioned as an acceptable figure. 17. This is far from ideal. The "bare-bones" budget we are tabling as a result of extensive deliberations and re-calculations has been driven by the need to keep adjustments at the lowest possible level, but it could still enable us to operate, especially if the Council allows us to use the late 2001 Article IV and V reimbursements in 2003. 18. The proposed reduced budget was made possible through the application of various measures, such as not filling a number of vacant posts, and postponing the purchase of equipment. 19. But these reductions cannot be applied in a continuous and indiscriminate way, because our normal business has started to suffer. 20. We have to update some of our equipment, and I definitely need to fill a few essential positions. I am not talking about major appointments here, only those which are, in my view, essential to the normal, day-to-day running of an international organisation. 21. These aspects have been discussed at length during the course of consultations. It is my sincere hope that Member States will favourably consider this proposed budget which, I reiterate, is based on minimum requirements. 22. Let me be clear about this. At the level being proposed, there is no financial buffer or reserve capacity. Therefore, the proposed changes in the Financial Rules we shall be seeking will be critical to ensure full programme delivery. 23. In spite of the difficulties and severe restrictions we have been operating under, we need to ensure the continuity of our work. 24. Now, for the good news. 25. Our financial situation up to now has certainly been critical, but the winds are changing. After a thorough review of our cash flow, we are in a position to carry out the programme of inspections from now until the end of the year, as was originally planned. 26. I am confident that, with your support, so generously offered during the last Conference of the States Parties, we will be able to gradually pick up the pace and resume our verification and international cooperation activities in earnest. 27. The planning has been completed, and our inspectors are waiting to go and carry out their duties. But these promising signs still need to be consolidated. 28.In this regard, it is perhaps appropriate to encourage the expeditious payment of arrears in assessed contributions, and the reimbursements of inspections which have been carried out under Articles IV and V. 29. I note with satisfaction that Member States have been considering making, and some are already making available, voluntary contributions to the Organisation. 30. I welcome these contributions as important gestures of commitment from those who may choose this option. I would only like to add that, when we consider voluntary funds, they should never be treated as lateral "fixes" for budgetary shortfalls. Voluntary funds will always be considered as extraordinary sources of income, to be used for well-defined and specific programmes. Having said that, I do encourage Member States to come forward with them, as experience shows they are extremely useful in areas like support for national implementation of the Convention. 31. National delegations and the Secretariat have been working very closely to try to come up with good solutions to these financial questions. I do believe these are at hand. 32. Consultations have been carried out in an excellent spirit of cooperation, and this constructive atmosphere between the Secretariat and the national delegations augurs well for the future. 33. Distinguished delegates, the budget we are proposing is predicated on the assumption that some of the Financial Regulations will be amended in order to give us the necessary flexibility to operate. The amendment of the relevant Financial Regulation would enable the Council to withhold cash surpluses for the prior year for a specific period. This alone would solve the cash problem in the immediate future. 34.In this context, the establishment of a working capital fund consisting of 10% of the budget to fund verification activities should be actively considered. 35. Everything is in place to adopt a budget this week, and for us to get on with our substantive work. But I would like to invite you to move ahead and to go beyond the ad hoc, "now-or-never", urgent mode of operating, and to adopt a more efficient budgetary format, namely, results-based budgeting. This would set targets and objectives, against which Member States would be able to measure whether they were getting value for the money they give to the Secretariat. We intend to go ahead with this, at least in part, for the budget for 2004. ... 55.Colleagues, the financial means we are seeking and the contributions the Member States make, go to specific programmes. Let us review some of them. Verification56. Verification is indeed central to our Convention, and a pillar of the work we do for Member States. 57. A number of important questions related to former chemical weapons production facilities are included in the agenda of this EC session. The course of destruction or conversion activities at CWPFs [chemical weapon production facilities], and their efficient verification, depend on the Council's decisions in relation to the combined plans for destruction and verification of the facilities located in the Russian Federation, the United States, and Yugoslavia, conversion requests for Russian facilities, and a combined plan for conversion and verification for the facility owned by the United Kingdom. I hope we will be making concrete progress in all of these during this session. 58. Destruction of declared CW is an ongoing process. Possessor States have been making significant efforts to accelerate Category 1 CW destruction, and this should be recognised. 59. This, of course, implies that our inspection workload will increase, because of the three new large-scale facilities in the United States, in addition to the Gorny facility in the Russian Federation. I would like to highlight the beginning of this new phase of destruction of category CW 1 in Russia, which we can only praise. 60. The United States has reaffirmed its leading role in the field of chemical disarmament, with almost 24 percent of its declared category 1 CW stockpile having been destroyed. 61. India is successfully conducting its fourth destruction campaign, which is proceeding smoothly and at a good pace. 62. A State Party has destroyed 12.4 % of its declared stockpile, and operations are now resuming after a short break for maintenance. 63. In the area of verification, accuracy and cost efficiency should not be seen as self-excluding principles. In this vein, we have started a process of internal reflection, accompanied, and often facilitated by, a dialogue with possessor States, to explore ways of applying cost-saving verification measures, which might allow us to do more with less. At the same time, we will look into ways of allocating a number of inspections to DOC facilities in the future, so as to cover all the installations of relevance to the Convention in a balanced an efficient manner. New technologies will gradually be incorporated. We appreciate the proposals and ideas put forward by Member States. 64. In terms of inspections under Article VI, as you know, financial constraints forced the Secretariat to reduce the number of industrial inspections. As I mentioned earlier, we will be carrying out the programme of inspections from now until the end of the year, as originally planned. 65. This will allow 38 more inspections; this means that by the end of the year, 78 Article VI inspections, or 60% of those budgeted for 2002, will have taken place. I sincerely hope that consultations in relation to the 2003 budget will result in a total budget and cash flow that will allow the Secretariat to perform all the Article VI inspections in 2003 that have been budgeted for. International Cooperation and Assistance66. The Chemical Weapons Convention is a universal and non-discriminatory legal instrument. It should not be perceived or considered as a treaty for a few countries, namely those possessing the weapons or having the industrial capacity to develop them. 67. We should never forget that our Convention is about disarmament and non-proliferation, security, peace, and stability for all through the elimination of a hideous means of destruction. All countries, big and small, are directly concerned and this is why, despite the financial restrictions the Organisation has suffered in the past, International Cooperation and Assistance activities have continued, and will certainly continue, to receive all the attention they rightly deserve. 68. For that reason, we would like to define a concept and a strategy for the implementation of Article X. I am sure that, thanks to the continued support of delegations, we shall be in a position to achieve a sound basis for assistance. 69. Supporting the implementation of the treaty at the national level remains at the top of my list of priorities, as nothing can be achieved without Member States carrying out their obligations efficiently and in a timely fashion. We are continuing with our programme of courses, helped by the invaluable cooperation of Member States. The contributions of the Netherlands and Sweden should be acknowledged, and I hope that others may join them in their generous efforts to help other fellow Member States to comply with the Convention. 70. Facilitating interaction between the National Authorities and the Secretariat, as well as among National Authorities, including on a regional basis, will remain a priority for the Secretariat's implementation support efforts next year. In addition to the regional meetings of National Authorities, which have become an important factor in the implementation of the Convention in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Eastern Europe, we are planning to introduce this mechanism in Africa and in Asia. 71. The Associate Programme is undoubtedly one of the success stories in International Cooperation, and I intend to strengthen and reinforce this programme with the participation of States whose commitment to, and enthusiasm for, the programme have demonstrated the importance they attribute to it. Canada and the United Kingdom, and institutions and companies in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, together with the backing of the European Chemical Industry Council, have provided us with the invaluable resources needed to keep this programme running. 72. All these facts point towards a sustained effort to reach out to countries and regions, to Member and non-Member States alike, with the firm intention to promote the Convention where there is a need to do so, and to ensure its application at all times. 73. Before concluding this section, I would like to mention that the Organisation is continuing with its preparation for real life scenarios, as shown by the ongoing exercise, ASSISTEX 1, in Croatia, which will provide an excellent opportunity to test our readiness, as well as our true commitment to, the crucial provisions of the Convention on assistance. External Relations74. During my tenure, I will strive for an active approach to all the regions, particularly in the developing world, where there is progress to be made with regard to our Convention. 75. In early July 2002, the OPCW participated as an observer in the Thirty-Eighth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity, and in the Seventy-Sixth Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, held in Durban, South Africa. 76. This historical occasion marked the launch of the African Union, and also heralded what I see as a new beginning in our relations with Africa. At the initiative of the Government of the Sudan, the African Union adopted its first-ever decision on the implementation and universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention. This important document, which is now being circulated by the delegation of South Africa as an official document of the Seventh Session of the Conference of the States Parties, encourages the call to achieve universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention in Africa. It also requests the Secretary-General of the African Union "to inform Council, at its regular sessions, of developments regarding the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the progress made on the issue of universality". 77. The African Union's decision presents the OPCW with a challenge which we cannot fail to address. To respond to this challenge, it is my intention to develop a programme of action to assist in national implementation and the promotion of universality in Africa. 78.To do so, I have started intensive consultations with the Permanent Representatives to the OPCW from Africa, with a view to coming up with a meaningful programme of action in the short term. [Conclusion]79. In my acceptance speech two months ago, I said that there should be a permanent and fluent channel of communication between the Technical Secretariat and the Member States. 80.You may have noticed that this statement contains several invitations: to think together, to change certain things hand in hand, to join us in a dialogue, and to keep supporting certain programmes. 81.This is exactly what I had in mind when I said that I would interact with you. 82. I recognise that this message may not be particularly inspiring, as I have chosen today to concentrate on the tangible problems on our agenda: to adopt a budget, to make progress with regard to our personnel, to approve a number of important measures in the verification area, among other issues. 83. Yet, let me invite you, in the name of the principles and common goals we all share in common, to prove in the best possible way that we can, that we stand behind them as firmly as ever. Let us start making real progress during this session. III. Russian Foreign Ministry Statement'On the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Executive Council's Session', Russian Foreign Ministry Statement, Document 1872-19-09-2002, September 19. A regular session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was held on September 10-13 in the Hague, Netherlands. It adopted a number of important decisions enabling the Russian Federation to fulfill systematically and consistently its obligations under the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. A detailed plan for the destruction of chemical weapons at the plant in Gorny (the presentation of its completion took place at the end of this August), and plans for the verification and destruction of the former plants for the production of yperite and lewisite in Dzerzinsk were endorsed. The OPCW Executive Council recommended approving at the upcoming Seventh Session of the Conference of the Member States of this Organization requests by the Russian Federation for the utilization of former chemical-weapon plants for peaceful purposes and their conversion. The establishment of conversion facilities at these enterprises, located in Volgograd and Novocheboksarsk, will help save considerable budgetary funds and provide additional jobs. The decisions taken by this authoritative international organization are due largely to the continually demonstrated adherence by the Russian Federation to fulfillment of the international obligations assumed in the area of chemical disarmament, as well as its practical steps to implement this complex and expensive program. © 2002 The Acronym Institute. |