9. The Commission received reports concerning the 16th and 17th sessions of the Executive Committee held in Geneva from 9 to 11 February and on 25 June 1971. In introducing the reports, the Chairman indicated that most of the substantive items considered by the Executive Committee would be dealt with by the Commission under the agenda items relating to the matters concerned. The report of the 17th session of the Executive Committee is reproduced as Appendix II to this Report.
10. The Commission noted that Rule XII of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission concerning the languages of the Commission, as amended by the Commission at its Seventh Session, had been approved by the Directors-General of FAO and WHO and confirmed by the Council of FAO. The Commission also noted that the Council of FAO had recommended to the Sixteenth Conference of FAO that the report of the Seventh Session of the Commission concerning Rule VI.3, governing the elaboration of standards for regions or groups of countries, be accepted and that the appropriateness and the timing of any amendment to Rule VI.3 might best be judged by the Commission. The Commission further noted that the Council of FAO had been informed that the procedures of the Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products had been fully aligned with those of the Commission, as had been requested by the Fourteenth Conference of FAO. The Council had recommended that the Sixteenth Conference of FAO be advised of this.
11. The Commission recalled that at its 7th Session it had decided that no further progress could be made with the Draft European Regional Standard for Natural Mineral Waters, which was before it for consideration at that session at Step 8, until those countries which had recognized specific natural mineral waters as having properties favourable to health were in a position to make available the criteria on which such recognition had been given. Material on this subject had been received from a number of interested countries and this material had been made available to WHO. A meeting of experts on natural mineral waters had been convened by WHO in May 1971 and the conclusions of the meeting would be placed before the next session of the Coordinating Committee for Europe which would be reconsidering the draft standard at Step 7.
12. The Commission noted that the Executive Committee had considered the question of the possibility of adopting a Codex mark or symbol which might be used to indicate that a food conformed to the requirements of the Codex Alimentarius. The Commission noted that the Secretariat, in conjunction with the Legal Counsels of FAO and WHO, were examining this subject in all its aspects and that the matter would be considered further by the Executive Committee at its 18th Session in the light of a report on this matter to be prepared by the Secretariat and Legal Counsels of FAO and WHO.
