The 17th Assembly of Parties (AP) of the International Mobile Satellite Organisation (IMSO) was held on 18-22 October in London. The Assembly is the organisation’s top body and gathers the Parties to the IMSO Convention, i.e., its member countries. IMSO’s current function is to oversee the Inmarsat company’s fulfilment of certain public service obligations, specifically the exclusive provision of satellite services under the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
The main issue on this AP’s agenda was consideration of changes to the IMSO Convention, following a proposal put forward by Denmark in the previous Assembly session in 2002 and later studied by a working group established at the time.
The amendments in question basically aim to expand IMSO’s duties to include supervision of eventual future providers of GMDSS satellite services so authorised by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), in a manner identical to those applied to Inmarsat. The principal motivation for same was the IMO’s adoption of a resolution envisaging that the provision of such services might be opened to other entities besides Inmarsat.
Portugal had serious reservations, holding that it was to early to adopt the amendments in question at this Assembly. Basically, it considered that various aspects associated to and/or deriving from the amendments had yet to be defined (specifically, with regard to contracts, finances and IMO co-ordination, among others), without which it would not be possible to go ahead with changes to the Convention. On the other hand it did not consider valid the amendments’ backers’ argument that there was an urgent need to adopt same, as the authorisation of any additional provider for the services in question is not planned in the near future, and there are still procedures to be defined at IMO level which should be completed before IMSO adopts the amendments.
Portugal’s position opposing the amendments’ adoption in the current AP was shared only by small group of countries, some of them for the same reasons as Portugal, others because they totally disagreed with the purpose and content of the amendments.
There was on the other hand widespread support for adoption of the amendments, especially when taken as a measure deriving from the IMO decision enabling the opening of GMDSS service provision and because of consideration that the failure to adopt same could be harmful to the functioning of GMDSS.
Despite that initial disadvantage and due to a co-ordination effort between the countries sharing the same opinion as Portugal, it was possible to ensure that the Assembly was aware of our concerns and reservations, while making clear the unanimous recognition of GMDSS as vital to humanity and the support for its continuation and improvement.
The AP’s results were thus in line with the position defended by Portugal. With respect to the amendments, compromise was reached as per the following terms:
- The IMSO will inform the IMO that the AP agrees in principle that the former may play a role in supervising future service providers in the GMDSS context, in a manner similar to that currently applied to Inmarsat;
- However, the AP considers that adoption of the measures should be postponed until all elements associated to and/or deriving from same are defined, and that an extraordinary AP may be called for that purpose;
- The AP approves in principle the text of the amendments finalised during this session (resulting from the work of a drafting group set up for that purpose, as the text submitted to the AP included a number of alternative versions for some Convention provisions); substantial debate should not resume on same, unless resulting from definition of the elements to finalise, as per the previous point above.
Among the remaining agenda points, basically of an administrative nature and/or concerning current organisational management, only the constitution of the Advisory Committee is worthy of note. This body, which supports the Director in managing the organisation between AP meetings, was composed of 15 members before this AP, which decided on an increase to 17 countries.
Portugal has participated in this body since it was founded in 1999 after a reorganisation process. In this AP it therefore expressed its readiness to cede its place to other countries interested in taking on such participation, with a mind to promoting rotation and better representation of all members. Portugal is thus no longer an effective member of the Advisory Committee, although it has been granted observer/supplementary member status, basically for reasons of continuity, and should thus be able to maintain a broad overview of the organisation’s activities and management.