1. The Ninety-fifth Session of the Council was held in Rome from 19 to 30 June 1989 under the Chairmanship of Lassaad Ben Osman, Independent Chairman of the Council.
2. The Agenda and timetable of the Session were adopted. The Agenda is given in Appendix A to this report.
3. The Council elected three Vice-chairmen for its Session: Apolinaire Andriatsiafajato (Madagascar), Gerhard Lieber (Federal Republic of Germany) and Roberto E.E. Dalton (Argentina).
4. The Council elected Hannu Halinen (Finland) as Chairman of the Drafting Committee with the following membership: Algeria, Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Finland, France, India,Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Philippines, Switzerland and United States of America.
5. The Director-General, after welcoming Council members, drew their attention to the alarming state of the world's food and agriculture. Due largely to the drought experienced in the United States of America and Canada cereal stocks had been reduced to a level representing 17 percent of projected requirements or the bare minimum which FAO considered essential to guarantee world food security. However, a combination of favourable weather conditions and unceasing efforts in coordinating desert locust control, had contributed substantially to excellent harvests in Africa, accompanied by surpluses in about 20 African countries and a consequential decrease in local prices of cereals.
6. The Director-General described FAO's financial situation as progressing from a critical phase to one of convalescence but stressed that payment of current contributions and arrears continued to be unsatisfactory. He reiterated his appeal to all countries, including the major donor, to meet their obligations as soon as possible. The forced reduction of expenditures by US$ 45 million in 1987 and 1988 had curtailed many programmes of fundamental importance to Member Nations. The Programme of Work and Budget for 1990-91, therefore, represented an opportunity for the Organization to reach a reasonable budget designed to meet priority needs of Member Nations, while avoiding a burdensome increase in contributions.
7. The Director-General underlined that, without anticipating the conclusions of the Review of FAO being conducted by the Programme and Finance Committees with the aid of experts,- the implementation of new measures to strengthen FAO might require additional financial resources. The future of FAO depended on the resources at its disposal to meet new and increasing needs. As one example of this, he cited the recent and sudden appearance in northern Africa of the Cochliomyia hominivorax (screwworm) and the potentially devastating effects it could have in Africa and Mediterranean Europe, in the absence of effective measures to. help countries at risk.
8. The Director-General drew attention to the request of the European Economic Community (EEC) to become a full member of the Organization, as well as the ongoing discussions with the Italian Government aimed at ensuring full respect for FAO's immunity from jurisdiction in Italy.
9. The Director-General appealed to the Council to achieve consensus on the many important questions before it including the "prior informed consent" clause in the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides and the recognition of the rights of farmers to a fair share of profits resulting from development of plant genetic resources.
10. The full text of the Director-General's statement is given in Appendix D to this report.
1 CL 95/1-Rev.1; CL 95/INF/1 CL 95/PV/1; CL 95/PV/18. 2 CL 95/PV/1; CL 95/PV/2; CL 95/PV/18.
3 CL 95/INF/5; CL 95/PV/1.. CL 95/PV/18.
