VZCZCXYZ0002
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRO #1052 2311255
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181255Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0795
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0536
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 0329
RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW 0750
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 0294

UNCLAS ROME 001052 
 
SIPDIS 
 
OES/OA - Rob Hughes 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: TPHY SENV AORC KSCA IT
SUBJECT: ANTARCTIC TREATY: ITALY REQUESTS DIPLOMATIC NOTE CONFIRMING 
OFFICIAL STATUS OF MADRID ATCM REPORT 
 
Ref: State 74080 
 
¶1.  Summary and action request.  Italian Foreign Ministry officials 
working on Antarctic issues are pushing for the measure creating the 
Antarctic Treaty Secretariat (Measure 1) to be approved, which can 
be done without Parliamentary review.  Progress has been blocked by 
their need for an official "original" copy of Measure 1.  They 
request a U.S. diplomatic note explaining that the Final Report for 
the relevant meeting should be considered the certified copy.  End 
summary.  Action request: Post seeks the Department's approval to 
transmit a diplomatic note to Italy containing the operative text 
included in paragraph 6 below (or alternate text provided by the 
Department). 
 
¶2.  On July 17, SCICOUNS delivered reftel points to Counselor 
Francesco Capponi, Ambassador Arduino Fornara, and Counselor Adriano 
Tedeschi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).  Capponi follows 
Antarctic issues for the MFA's Asia, Oceania, Pacific, and Antarctic 
Affairs Directorate.  Fornara represents Italy in Antarctic Treaty 
Consultative Meetings (ATCMs).  Tedeschi is an expert in the MFA's 
legal office. 
 
¶3.  Amb. Fornara expressed hope that ATCM Measure 1 (2003) would be 
approved in time for the April 2009 ATCM in Baltimore.  Couns. 
Capponi explained that Measure 1 does not need to be approved by the 
Italian Parliament.  Instead, it can be approved by a legislative 
decree, which is signed by President Napolitano.  He also noted that 
Italy already is paying its treaty contributions regularly, and so 
the approval will not entail additional funding. 
 
¶4.  Capponi and Tedeschi explained that Italian legal experts had 
been concerned about the immunity provisions of ATCM Measure 1. 
They had obtained clarification from the Argentine Government (which 
has been pushing the MFA to obtain Italy's approval of Measure 1) 
that the immunity provisions are only with relation to the 
Secretariat's status in Argentina, and do not apply to other 
countries.  That freed the issue to move forward in the MFA's review 
process, but the process then foundered on the MFA's need for an 
"original" copy of Measure 1. 
 
¶5.  Capponi had obtained from the Argentine Embassy in Rome a 
diplomatic note containing an excerpt from a diplomatic note which 
the Argentine Embassy in Washington had received from the State 
Department, explaining that the U.S. could not provide a certified 
copy of Measure 1, and that the Final Reports of ATCM meetings would 
be considered the certified copies of the measures.  Tedeschi said 
that the text of that note would be sufficient to allow the MFA to 
consider the Final Report the original copy, if the MFA received 
that information via diplomatic note directly from the U.S. 
(Capponi said he had provided to Tedeschi earlier the original copy 
of the report, which he had located in the MFA's archives.) 
 
¶6.  If the Department approves, Post proposes to send to the MFA a 
diplomatic note containing the following operative text.  It is 
drawn verbatim from the Argentine diplomatic note quoting the U.S. 
diplomatic note, with a few changes in the final sentence (e.g., the 
substitution of "Italy" for "Argentina," and "Italian" for 
"Argentine").  Begin proposed text: 
 
"Unfortunately, the U.S. is not in a position to provide a certified 
copy of the measure requested (Measure 1 adopted at the 26th 
Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting held at Madrid June 9-20, 
2003).  This is so because the countries which host each Antarctic 
treaty Consultative Meeting (in the case of the 26th meeting, it was 
Spain), being the custodians of the official documents of those 
meetings, are the only entities that can create certified copies of 
the documents produced at the meeting.  These documents are usually 
printed in a "Final Report" of each meeting, copies of which are 
issued to each Antarctic treaty party.  The Final Reports would be 
considered the certified copies of the measures and decisions that 
were adopted at the meetings.  Presumably such a Final Report 
already was issued to Italy, but it should be possible for the 
Government of Italy to obtain another copy of the Final Report for 
the 26th meeting if the original cannot be located." 
 
¶7.  Please advise if Post is authorized to send a diplomatic note to 
Italy containing this or other text addressing this issue. 
 
Crawford