ECOSOC 2007 ORGANIZATIONAL SESSION: AGENDA

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000069 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID EFIN KUNR ECOSOC SUBJECT: ECOSOC 2007 ORGANIZATIONAL SESSION: AGENDA ADOPTED AND NEW LEADERSHIP TAKES THE REINS REF: 06 USUN 2288 (NOTAL) ¶1. Summary: See Action request para 6. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) met January 17 and 22 for the first segment of its 2007 Organizational Session. After prolonged discussion in the second (exceptional) meeting of the session, the agenda we sought was adopted. Work on the core elements of the 2007 Organizational Session - many deferred 2006 items - will get underway on February 6. End summary. ¶2. Agenda: The agenda for the ECOSOC Organizational Session was adopted by consensus January 22, after several hours of informal meetings. The Secretariat has reissued a corrected version (E/2007/2/Rev.1) that satisfies U.S. and others' concerns that the initial Secretariat document had incorrectly portrayed the plans for the 2007 ECOSOC High level Segment (HLS) in section 2. A more contentious debate was initiated by the Pakistani-led G77, which challenged the Secretariat's initial description of plans to move ahead with SIPDIS adaptation of the ECOSOC program of work, as agreed last year in Decision 2006/206. (FYI: the G77 fought energetically to remove references to anything but the last resolution on strengthening ECOSOC, but found no allies. End FYI). The carefully structured paragraph on this subject in Section 3 of the agenda now reads: "The Council's attention is drawn to General Assembly resolution 61/16 on strengthening of the ECOSOC, adopted pursuant to paragraphs 155 and 156 of the World Summit Outcome (GA resolution 60/1),and Council decision 2006/206. The President of the Council shall convene consultations on the organization of work, agenda, and current methods of work of the Council with a view to their implementation beginning in 2007. " ¶3. Other agenda changes: An agenda item on rural development that was inadvertently omitted from the first Provisional agenda provided by the Secretariat was submitted for approval in section 2 and adopted: "In its decision 2006/212, the Council decided to consider, at is regular organizational session in February 2007, the proposal to hold a discussion on promoting an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development at a future substantive session of the Council." ¶4. ECOSOC leadership structure changes: In accordance with standard procedure, the new ECOSOC Bureau assumed power January 17 by acclamation, with outgoing President Hachani of Tunisia declaring 2006 a year of significant accomplishments. Incoming SYG Ban Ki-Moon was present and delivered brief remarks. The new ECOSOC structure follows: Amb Dalious Cekoulis-Lithuania President/East European Group Amb Lauro Baja-Philippines VP/Asian Group Amb Youcef Yousfi-Algeria VP/African Group Amb Leo Merores-Haiti VP/GRULAC (Second year) Amb Hjalmar Hannesson-Iceland VP/WEOG (Second year) ¶5. Next Steps: The major unresolved issues for 2007 relate to the new ECOSOC system architecture and in particular how to implement it for 2007. Informal "informal" discussions on the themes for the 2007 HLS were convened January 24 to move the Council towards resolution of the open issue. The initial meeting provided no solutions, and the next round of informal negotiations is set for January 26. The current objective is to have the themes for the Summer 2007 Substantive Session agreed by the end of the February 6-9 Organizational Session. ¶6. Action request: Department should note the list of deferred 2006 items (reftel para 4) coming up for action in the February 6-9 Organizational Session and provide guidance as appropriate (We will alert Dept to additional action items as announced): --Request for additional deferral of the Graduation of Samoa from the list of Least Developed Countries. --World Tourism Organization: Annex on privileges and immunities. --Application of the International Emergency Management Organization for observer status. --CSTD (a) Elections (new slots) Note: US is running for a CSTD slot opening in the regular ECOSOC election session in April. (b) Tough negotiations will be required to reach consensus on the CSTD report and imbedded resolution, which was deferred in the 2006 Summer Session and deferred again in the December Resumed Session. WOLFF