13th meeting Advisory Committee - London

The 13th meeting of the Advisory Committee of the International Mobile Satellite Organisation (IMSO) was held on 15-16 November in London.

Following on previous Committee meetings, this session’s main aim was to continue work on producing a draft Public Service Agreement (PSA) model, to be signed by the IMSO and future satellite service providers with regard to the global maritime distress and safety system (GMDSS), authorised to that end by the International Maritime Organisation. The document in question was worked on at both this meeting and the previous one, by the secretariat in co-ordination with the potential new providers, with the aim of resolving any points still open; the main ones concerned the clauses on IMSO decision appeal procedures, company disbandment and cost sharing by the various licensed providers.

The IMSO director presented text contributions on all these points, which led to a heated committee debate, mainly because the proposals submitted do not meet the interests of the future providers, who were also supported by the USA delegation. In particular, it was considered that the companies should be able to appeal IMSO decisions before going to court (in the document’s previous version, this was assured by the IMO). The compromise solution was to give the companies the possibility of appealing to the IMSO Assembly.

Regarding disbandment of the company, the future providers considered that the formulation proposed by the organisation’s director could limit the respective company’s opportunities to use external financing. A compromise text was also worked out here, although some providers indicated they did not entirely agree with the solution.

Regarding financial questions, the operators’ initial evaluation costs, with a view to their “licensing” as GMDSS providers, were considered very high (especially due to the involvement of an experts group). The may thus end up blocking the market entry of new operators. The Director’s proposal to share costs in equal parts among the providers was also not well accepted, specifically by the potential new providers. The Committee agreed on the text for these points along the lines proposed by the Director, though some providers and countries manifested disagreement with the approved solution. The Committee thus completed the text of the draft public service agreement model, even though there is a clear lack of consensus on some of its points.

This Committee session also considered budget execution in the current year and the proposed budget for next year, which was approved after some discussion, mainly concerning clarification of certain aspects and increasing the overall transparency of the budget model used by the IMSO.

Outside the working agenda, the Russian delegation indicated that despite the progress achieved at the meeting, it continued to see advantages in postponing the extraordinary Assembly so that the decisions at IMSO level might best reflect the positions eventually taken in the IMO. Surprisingly, given his strong resistance to an identical proposal at the previous Committee meeting, the Director considered this intention favourably, going so far at to indicate that it could be beneficial from the standpoint of co-ordination with the IMO, and could give IMSO members more time to consider the proposals the Assembly will have to approve. The Russian proposal was also supported by some other countries, which had defended it at the previous meeting.

Thus, and with some reluctance from the chair, who considered that it could be viewed as Committee non-compliance with Assembly instructions, the cancellation of the extraordinary Assembly scheduled for December was approved. The matters it was meant to cover, particularly formal approval of amendments to the IMSO Convention, will be dealt with in the 2006 ordinary session, to be held in September.