Preparing for first meeting of the Conference of the Parties

1. Preparing for first meeting of the Conference of the Parties

2. Local arrangements • Venue: Conrad Resort and Casino, Punta del Este, Uruguay • Transportation between Montevideo airport and Punta del Este • Hotel, visa and other local information are available at www.pops.int • United Nations security requirements will mean delays in entering the building

3. SC COP-1 week-at-a-glance (1) • Sunday, 1 May: • Registration from 2pm-6pm • Regional group meetings begin at 3pm (also each morning during the week and other times as needed) • Monday morning, 2 May: • Full security in place • Plenary from 10am-1pm (elect president, adopt agenda & programme of work, establish Committee of the Whole & legal/budget group)

4. SC COP-1 week-at-a-glance (2) • Monday afternoon, 2 May until Wednesday close of business • No plenary • Legal/budget group (cover: COP rules of procedure, financial rules, other legal issues and budget • COW (cover substantives issues including POPs Review Committee, DDT, wastes, unitentionally produced POPs, financial resources, technical assistance, etc.)

5. Possible contact groups under COW • POPRC terms of refernce • Guidance to the financial mechanism • BAT/BEP expert group terms of reference • Effectiveness evaluation • Guidance on technical assistance • others (?)

6. SC COP-1 week-at-a-glance (3) • Thursday morning, 5 May, to Friday close of business, 6 May: • Plenary meets at the Ministerial-level (speeches, decisions, adoption of reports) • Legal/budget group (focus mostly on finishing the budget taking into account budget implications of decisions)

7. Lunch/evening briefings by: • Canadian POPs fund • UNITAR • IFCS • IPEN • WHO • GEF • WTO • Japan

8. BAT/BEP guidelines decision may include: COP may wish to: • Identify further work to be undertaken on the draft guidelines and provisional guidance and determine the modalities for completing that work; • Adopt, for immediate use by Parties pending further development, with any amendments, the draft guidelines and provisional guidance; • Identify modalities for updating the guidelines and provisional guidance on a regular basis.

9. Further work on the guidelines: • Immediate editorial fixes/improvements (cleaning up editorial problems, add a glossary, provide links to technology descriptions) • Agreeing on modalities to fill gaps and better consider developing country circumstances (developing terms of reference for the group to do this)

10. Some options for a future group on BAT/BEP • Mandate current group to continue with present terms of reference • Mandate group to continue but with modified terms of reference to make it open to observers • Establish an open-ended working group to deal with these issues

11. Some options for COP ownership of the guidelines • Adopt guidelines recognizing further work needed • Adopt guidelines on a provisional basis until further work is needed • Note guidelines, request further work and consider at a future session • Thank expert group for its work and ask for further work to be undertaken for future consideration

12. Your input is needed: • What more information is needed? • How can the guidelines be made more user friendly? • Where are the guidelines incorrect? • What are the gaps where more information is needed • What sort of process (group and terms of reference) would be best suited for future work on improving and updating the guidelines?

13. Conclusion • The Secretariat will not take your recommendations/comments forward to the COP, Government will need to do so • The window for influencing the process at COP-1 is very short so preparation, planning and consensus building ahead of time is key • Regional group meetings provide a good opportunity for building consensus at that level