- Minutes of the 13th assembly
- Participants of the 13th assembly
Agenda
- Welcome and opening of the meeting (14h on 6/11/08).
- Adoption of the Agenda and of the Minutes of the 12th GA.
- Report of the GA Chairman on the ‘Bureau preparatory meeting’, Brussels, 22/10/08.
- Report of PAC Chairman (the PAC 4th Session took place in Casablanca, 18-19/5/08).
- Programme Managers’ reports:
- ALADIN work in the intersession and outlook for issues at the 13th GA; CSSI and LTM specific matters;
- HIRLAM aspects of the joint plans under HARMONIE;
- Transversal issues (C-SRNWP EUMETNET Programmes / CHAPEAU [link with Academia]).
- ‘Classical matters’ for the past year:
- Operational report (Tomas Kral);
- Maintenance report (Claude Fischer);
- Manpower figures for 7-07 to 6-08 (ALADIN PM).
- Signing of the ALADIN MoU between 16 Partners (*).
- CSSI report on the PAC-assigned task concerning ‘AROME-ALARO convergence’ (CSSI Chair).
- ALADIN 4-year plan:
- Presentation of the Draft 4-year plan (CSSI Chair & ALADIN PM);
- Comments, discussions and final shaping of the ALADIN 4-year plan (GA Chair).
Special presentation: LAM-EPS preliminary achievements and pending issues (Dijana Klaric).
- Cooperation and licensing agreements (GA Chair).
- Membership and cooperation matters (GA Chair):
- Ukraine’s first official steps;
- Viet-Nam’s search for contacts;
- Other similar matters, if any.
- Work plan for 2009, essentially in terms of manpower priorities (ALADIN PM):
- Anticipation of main achievements in 2009 with respect to the 4-year plan;
- Elaboration process with implication of LTM and CSSI Members.
- Important scientific or technical issues for the 2009 planning; draft list to be updated if needed (ALADIN PM & CSSI Chair):
- Physics (including ‘convergence’);
- Dynamics;
- Surface modelling- and data assimilation issues;
- 4D-Var related issues;
- LAMEPS;
- System aspects;
- Verification.
- Budget matters (ALADIN PM):
- Accounting of the 2007 budget;
- Report about the ongoing execution of the 2008 budget;
- Adoption of the 2009 budget;
- Royalties-linked issues.
- Appointments of the PAC Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson (GA Chair).
- A.O.B.
- Date of the next General Assembly (and confirmation of the places for the next two General Assemblies).
- Closing of the meeting (at 11h40).
(*) The signing between sixteen Partners of a slightly updated version of the ALADIN MoU is necessary because of the decision taken at the Budapest 11th regular GA, e.g. (with additional marking of the determining sentence)
Turkey needed clarification about an article of the MoU. It concerns Article 14 in the final clause; ’98 This MoU cannot be opposed to or supersede any national law and/or regulation to be respected by the Parties’. This is valid in particular regarding the Turkish law defining the national territory, recalling that Turkey has not signed the UNCLOS convention. The signature of the MoU by the Turkish NMS will not violate their national legislation. However it is wise and sensible to recall this particular point when appropriate.
Accordingly, following a proposal by Météo-France representative, the Turkish NMS is invited to send a letter to the GA chairman confirming their willingness to become an acceding member, with the precision that it has to respect the national law defining the Turkish national territory. A positive answer of the GA chairman will be enough to make the Turkish an acceding member officially (no need for an addendum to the MoU at this stage).
This point will be again specified and confirmed when the Turkish NMS signs to become a full member.
and because the procedure for full Membership of the Turkish NMS was completed for an accession on 1/1/08. In fine, this means that the re-signed version of the MoU will be identical to the previous one but for the following differences:
- Number of Partners and mention of Turkey when the Partners are listed;
- Date of resigning and recall of the original date of signing (for post-signing duration reasons which must remain bound to the original date);
- A foot-note specifying that “With reference to the Article 14/98 of the present Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Turkey states that its position concerning United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains unchanged†;
- An updated manpower contribution scale computed for the 30/6/08.
NB: Agenda Item 7 was treated before Agenda Item 6 and Agenda Items 10 and 11 before the ‘Special presentation’. Agenda Item 14.1 was skipped because of a not yet prepared documentation.