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

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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