8. The Commission received reports concerning the Tenth and Eleventh Sessions of the Executive Committee held in May 1967 (Rome) and February 1968 (Rome). At these sessions, the Executive Committee had dealt with the following main matters: report on budgetary arrangements for 1968/69; Rules of Procedure of the Codex Alimentarius Commission; relations with international governmental and non-governmental organizations; the acceptance, enforcement and revision of Codex standards; codes of practice; Format of Codex Standards; copyright in respect of methods of analysis; publication of the Codex Alimentarius; general and regional standards; operation of the Guidelines for Codex Committees; arrangements for the Fifth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Chairman pointed out that these subjects would be discussed under the relevant items of the Commission's agenda. The Reports of the two sessions of the Executive Committee are fully reproduced in Appendices II and III to this Report.
9. The Commission considered the subject of copyright in respect of the publication of methods of analysis in the Codex Alimentarius. The Commission agreed with the conclusions of the Eleventh Session of the Executive Committee that the question of copyright should only be dealt with on a case by case basis and that when questions of copyright might be involved the Secretariat should write to the holder of the copyright enquiring if it could be waived on behalf of FAO and WHO for use by the Commission.
10. The Commission requested the Executive Committee to examine, at its next session, the desirability of introducing a greater degree of flexibility in the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards, in particular with a view to enabling a standard under consideration by the Commission at Step 8 as a regional standard to be considered as a world-wide standard at the same step.
11. In the light of the experience gained during the consideration for the first time of standards at Step 8 of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Standards, the Commission requested the Executive Committee to consider how best the Commission might conduct the business of its regular sessions on standards at Step 8.
12. The Commission noted the recommendations of the Fourteenth Session of the FAO Conference that guidelines should be established for use by the Commission in deciding on new work to be undertaken and in considering the establishment of subsidiary bodies. The Executive Committee was requested to examine this recommendation and make suitable proposals to the Sixth Session of the Commission.
