20 October 1995

The Second Plenary Meeting was opened at 15.00 hours
Mr Costas Petrides,
Chairman of the Conference, presiding

La deuxième séance plénière est ouverte à 15 heures
sous la présidence de M. Costas Petrides,
Président de la Conférence

Se abre la segunda sesión plenaria a las 15.00 horas
bajo la presidencia del Sr. Costas Petrides,
Presidente de la Conferencia

CHAIRMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to call the second meeting to order.

Before proceeding with our business, I will give the floor to the Secretary-General who has a short announcement relating to the Agenda.

SECRETARY-GENERAL: The European Community is participating in this Conference in accordance with paragraphs 8 and 9 of Article II of the FAO Constitution.

I have been asked to inform you that the declaration made by the European Community and its Member States is contained in document C 95/INF/16, which has already been distributed. I would draw the attention of Conference to this declaration.

CHAIRMAN: In accordance with the tentative timetable for the Conference as found in Appendix A to document C 95/12, the items before us this afternoon are numbers: 3, 4, 5, 23, 27.3, 27.4 and 27.5, which are as follows. One, the adoption of the Agenda; two, arrangements for the Session and the location of Agenda items, admission of observers, applications for membership of the Organization, presentation of the B.R. Sen Awards, presentation of the A.H. Boerma Award, presentation of the Edouard Saouma Award.

As instructed by Conference this morning, the General Committee met and prepared its first report containing proposals on these items as well as on other related arrangements.

I now propose that the Secretary-General read the first report of the General Committee section by section for the Conference's consideration. The Report itself will be available to all tomorrow morning as document number C 95/LIM/6.

May I ask the Secretary-General to read the first section of the Report.