DEMARCHE DELIVERED: US POSITION ON IEA 2009-2010

UNCLAS MADRID 001310 SIPDIS EEB/ESC: JOEL KOPP; USOECD: PAMELA BATES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG SP IEA SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: US POSITION ON IEA 2009-2010 REF: SECSTATE 129509 ¶1. Econoff delivered reftel demarche December 10 to MFA's Juan Luis Munoz de Laborde, explaining the US's position on funding the International Energy Agency (IEA) for the 2009-2010 budget and beyond. Munoz de Laborde, who is the Deputy Director for Multilateral Economic Relations, expressed his appreciation for the US position clarification prior to the December 16-17 Paris meetings. ¶2. After consulting with representatives of the Ministry of Industry and the Spanish Embassy to the OECD, Munoz de Laborde offered on December 15 the following GOS position. First, the GOS in principle is in favor of "scale of contribution" reform. According to Munoz de Laborde, this reform would allow Spain to make adjustments in relation to its economic reality, although it likely would not greatly affect the level of Spain's contribution since Spain is a mid-size OECD participant. Second, the GOS is in favor of supporting zero real growth funding, arguing that since the IEA budget has been frozen for about a decade, zero nominal growth might be too restrictive. AGUIRRE