229. The Council had before it a proposal by the Representative of Norway 2 to the effect that it should appoint a small ad hoc committee to review the methods of work of the Council in the light of experience gained since the directives issued on this matter by the Council at its Forty-Third Session in 1964, which still formed the basis of the Council's present methods of work 3.
230. The Council agreed that such a review had become necessary. In the light of the ensuing general discussion, the Council decided to establish an Intergovernmental Ad Hoc Committee on the Methods of Work of the Council, composed of seven Member Nations representative of the seven regions. This Committee had held a preliminary session on the afternoon of 17 June 1971, and would reconvene in Rome on the morning of 1 November 1971, immediately prior to the Fifty-Seventh Session of the Council. It would be expected to submit its conclusions to the Fifty-Ninth Session of the Council in the autumn of 1972. In view of this work schedule, the Council agreed that the governments serving on this committee should be selected from those members of the Council whose term of office would not expire before 31 December 1972.
231. The Council appointed Argentina, Indonesia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the United Arab Republic, and the United States of America to serve on the Committee.
232. The Council was of the opinion that the review should be conducted on the broadest possible basis with the participation of the Independent Chairman. The Council noted that FAO was becoming more and more involved in extra budgetary activities, and expressed its concern that the governing bodies did not have adequate opportunity within the present review arrangements of Council and Conference to acquaint themselves sufficiently with the extra-budgetary activities, to discuss them and to give guidance whenever required. The Council agreed that the Ad Hoc Committee should also review this problem and make recommendations. The views of all Member Nations and Associate Members of the Organization should be sought by correspondence, and the Committee might wish to envisage the attendance of such nations as were not members of the Committee when their specific proposals were to be discussed by the Committee. The Council further suggested that the Committee might profitably carry out part of its work by correspondence between sessions.
233. The Council noted that when organizing its future work, the Ad Hoc Committee should consider whether each of the standing committees of the Council should include in the agenda of their sessions prior to the 1972 Council Session the question of the extent to which the instructions of the Forty-Third Session of the Council (1964) had been carried out by the particular committee and what steps, if any, should be taken to ensure that those instructions were fulfilled.
234. The Council decided that its Fifty-Seventh Session should be convened in Rome, from 1 to 4 November 1971.
1 CL 56/PV-2, CL 56/PV-16, CL 56/PV-17 and CL 56/PV-18.
2 CL 56/LIM/2.
3 CL 56/INF/4.
4 CL 56/PV-17.
