UNCLASSIFIED   UNESCOPARI   05270705 
VZCZCXYZ0010
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFR #0705 1471602
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 271602Z MAY 09
FM UNESCO PARIS FR
TO SECSTATE WASHDC

UNCLAS PARIS FR 000705 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NOAA JACK DUNNIGAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TPHY SCUL UNESCO
SUBJECT: GROUP ONE MEETING 20 MAY 2009 
 
¶1.  Summary:  The May 20 meeting of UNESCO's regional electoral 
Group I (Western Europe and North America) laid bare some of the 
horse-trading that occurs in obtaining seats connected to the 
various committees, commissions, and Conventions at UNESCO.  Italy 
proposed that Group I trade with Group II (Russia and Eastern 
Europe) a seat on Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) 
Executive Council for a seat on the treaty body of the 2005 
Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural 
Expressions.  The U.S. blocked consensus on the idea at this 
meeting, but Canada and others argued that Group I will eventually 
have to deal with Group II's demand for more seats on the IOC 
Executive Council. End summary. 
 
¶2.  The key issue during the Group I meeting centered on the ASPAC - 
Asia Pacific Electoral Group's - request via letter to the 
Director-General through the ADG for Culture, Francoise Riviere, for 
Group I to "return" a seat on the Cultural Diversity Convention's 
treaty body that had been "loaned" for two years to Group I.  The 
Convention allocates three seats to each group.  Group I currently 
has five seats on the Convention's Committee. 
 
¶3.  Complicating the matter was a letter from Group II asking that 
the Director-General find a way to increase the number of seats 
Group II has on the IOC Executive Council.  (Note:  Group II now has 
two seats on the Council, compared to 11 seats for Group I.  End 
note). 
 
¶4.  The meeting Chair, Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Moscato, asked 
Group I members how he should respond to the ASPAC letter, saying 
that he anticipated a possible battle with the Indian ambassador if 
there were any problems concerning the request.  France's 
ambassador, Ms. Colonna, said that Group I must return the seat, 
adding that it would be in the Group's "political interest," and its 
only chance to get seats in the future. 
 
¶5.  Moscato announced that he would circulate a draft reply to the 
D-G through Ms. Riviere saying that the Group had "taken note" of 
ASPAC's letter, while opening a discussion with the ASPAC Group's 
chairman to see what other options might be possible in a wider seat 
swapping arrangement. 
 
¶6.  Regarding the IOC, Moscato observed that Group I now has 11 
seats, and only 10 candidates, making it appear to be a simple 
decision to use the extra seat for trading to other Groups.  He 
added that, given the need for the General Conference to change the 
IOC's rules of procedure to accommodate such a shift of seats, the 
redivision of seats could not take effect until after the 36th 
session of the General Conference in 2011.  However, the U.S. 
Charge, Stephen Engelken, told the Group that he would not join in 
consensus to resolve the seat swaps without instruction from 
Washington.  He told the Group that "any decision about giving up 
seats on the IOC must be determined based on what is best for the 
IOC."  Engelken added that while we have a large number of seats, it 
is important to note that Group I's contribution to IOC (both 
financial and in terms of expertise) is also disproportionately 
high.  Finally, he stressed that the U.S. is not a party to the 
Cultural Diversity Convention and that the U.S. is therefore not 
interested in whether or not Group I obtains more seats on its 
treaty body. 
 
¶7.  The Italian Chair appealed to the Group to "see reality."  Group 
II will continue to press to rectify the imbalance of seats on the 
IOC Executive Council.  Canadian Ambassador Laurin said that if we 
don't find a solution, e.g. giving up one of the 11 IOC seats in 
order to gain a seat for Cultural Diversity, we will probably find 
ourselves in a situation later where an ad-hoc committee will impose 
a decision on the Group that might be worse.  We could lose more 
than one seat, and not get anything for it from the other Groups. 
 
¶8.  Norway intervened, saying that the current seat quotas regarding 
IOC are not fair, and agreed that we risk losing more than one of 
our 11 seats.  Turkey said that the Group should negotiate now, or 
potentially lose control of things during the General Conference. 
 
¶9.  Things were left in the hands of Ambassador Moscato for the 
moment.  We anticipate he will raise this issue again before the IOC 
Executive Council meeting later in June. 
ENGELKEN