SWEDES UNWILLING TO PRESENT POSITION ON CITES

UNCLAS STOCKHOLM 000058 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/ENRC (LGAMBLE) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KSCA SENV AORC ECON SW SUBJECT: SWEDES UNWILLING TO PRESENT POSITION ON CITES COP15 U.S. SPECIES PROPOSAL REF: A. STOCKHOLM 43 ¶B. STATE 6668 ¶1. (SBU) Marie Dahlstrom, Desk Officer, Division for Natural Resources, the Swedish Ministry of the Environment, told Emboff on February 11 that Sweden would not reveal its position on any of the U.S. species proposals prior to the CITES COP15 meeting, citing EU membership as the reason. Dahlstrom said EU member countries coordinate their positions regarding the COP15 species proposals with one another, and that the process for doing so will not be completed until March 3. ¶2. (U) Dahlstrom said the EU Presidency will be launching an outreach program to concerned embassies in the next day or so, and that the U.S. Embassy in Madrid will likely be contacted. She said she would be part of the Swedish delegation, but that no other participants had been identified to date. BARZUN