Statement by Slovenia on behalf of the European Union
1. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries Croatia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia1 and Turkey, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Moldova and Ukraine, associate themselves with this statement.
Mr. Chairman,
2. The EU would like to use this opportunity to once more commend the Bahamas, Barbados, Malaysia and Colombia for their recent ratifications of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty. With their decisions these countries expressed their full commitment to the goals of the Treaty. We welcome in particular the recent ratification by Columbia which brings the Treaty closer to its entry into force and hope that the few remaining Annex 2 States will follow her example.
3. The EU thanks the PTS for preparing the Medium Term Plan 2009 – 2013. It sets out a clear perspective of the medium term programme and budget construction. We welcome the presentation of the strategic goals and priorities in a comprehensive and well structured manner. To achieve these goals, sufficient funds need to be available to the Commission and therefore the EU continues to advocate programme driven budgets the EU has consistently called for.
4. The EU welcomes the elements on sustainment and recapitalization of IMS stations in the MTP as these are essential for the realistic planning of the mid- and long–term budgets.
5. We believe that introducing key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure performance and monitor results will significantly contribute to increasing the transparency and accountability of the system.
Mr. Chairman,
6. The EU supports the ongoing review by the PTS concerning the adoption of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). Given that UN agencies and several other international organisations have now adopted IPSAS for their financial reporting, we consider it necessary to take a timely decision on this matter.
Therefore the EU requests the PTS to present the results of the review on the possible adoption of IPSAS for consideration at the next session of the Advisory Group with the view to a recommendation on the adoption of IPSAS.
7. The EU understands that the implementation of PTS restructuring is finally being completed. We would like to congratulate the PTS for this endeavour and reiterate our proposal made last year: We would see substantial merit in a follow-up review of the Starr-Rimdap report implementation, which would give an additional impetus for further strengthening the efficiency of the PTS.
Mr. Chairman,
8. The EU would like to commend the PTS for its proposals to contain post-certification activities (PCA) costs as outlined in the paper CTBT/PTS/INF.935 and in the MTP 2009-2013. We acknowledge that conditions differ greatly between stations, so station-specific issues need to be taken into account.
The EU reiterates that this is a key issue in order to keep future budgets sustainable. Taking into account the high increase of PCA costs in recent years we believe that the WGB should resolve technical aspects of this issue in order to allow consolidated recommendations to be submitted to the next Preparatory Commission. The proposals could thus be taken into account in the planning process for the 2009 programme and budget. EU is ready to further examine the PTS proposals put to WGB.
9. The EU welcomes the continued development of an effective on-site inspection regime. In this light we endorse the proposal of a full scale OSI mock inspection, envisaged for 2012.
10. We would like to recall the importance of the success of the Integrated Field Exercise IFE08. The preparation of the exercise has already required substantial human and financial resources. Preparations continue, and several questions remain. For this reason, the EU requests that regular situation reports be provided to the States Signatories and an informal PTS briefing be organised in May 2008, in order to give the opportunity for States to comment on the final preparatory stage well before the beginning of the IFE08 in September.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1] Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process
