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10 May 2000

The General Assembly meets at 3 p.m. today to take action on a draft resolution, submitted by the President, on the organization of the list of speakers and the round tables for the Millennium Summit, to be held 6 to 8 September 2000.

By adopting the draft resolution (A/54/L.83/Rev.1), the Assembly decides that the Millennium Summit shall consist of a total of six meetings, with two plenary meetings a day over the three days; and that there shall be four interactive round-table sessions, beginning on the afternoon of 6 September and ending on the morning of 8 September.  Consultations are continuing regarding the possible participation in the plenary of representatives of intergovernmental organizations, parliaments and civil society.

The resolution includes an annex that sets out how the list of speakers for the plenary of the Summit will be established this month.  It will be done through the drawing of Member States’ names for the choice of meeting and speaking slot.  The list will then be rearranged, in keeping with the established practice of the Assembly, to accord first priority to Heads of State and Government.

As regards the organization of the round tables, the annex stipulates that the three regions not represented by the two Co-Chairpersons (Namibia for Africa and Finland for Western Europe and other Countries) will chair three of the four round tables.  The three are: Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.  The choice of the chairperson of the fourth round table is subject to further consultations.  The regional groups, in consultation with the Assembly President, will select the chairpersons of the round tables.  Each regional group will also determine those members that will attend each round table, ensuring equitable geographical distribution, and will communicate that information to the President.

The draft text expands on resolution 54/254, adopted on 15 March, in which the Assembly decided that the Summit will be held from 6 to 8 September 2000 in New York under the overall theme “The role of the United Nations in the Twenty-first Century”; that the Summit will be composed of plenary meetings and of four interactive round-table sessions, each session held concurrent with a plenary meeting; and that, owing to the unique symbolic moment of the Summit, the country holding the presidency of the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly and the country holding the presidency of the fifty-fifth  session will jointly co-chair the Summit.

At a meeting this morning, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) approved a statement on the programme budget implications of the draft resolution (A/C.5/54/60), to enable the Assembly to take action on the draft today.  However, the Committee stated that it would revisit the matter of the cost -- estimated at $1.1 million to $1.4 million for public and media coverage and for central support services, in addition to $450,000 for security coverage and $193,000 for protocol -- before the end of its current session, which continues for another three weeks.  Some delegations, both in the ACABQ and in the Fifth Committee, considered the cost to be too high.

In other action, on the recommendation of the Fifth Committee, the Assembly is expected to appoint Nathan Irumba (Uganda) to the 18-member Committee on Contributions for a term of office ending on 31 December 2000, following the resignation of David Etuket (Uganda) (A/54/541/Add.1).  The Assembly will also appoint four members of the 11-member Joint Inspection Unit, as follows: Doris Bertrand-Muck (Austria), Ion Gorita (Romania), Wolfgang M. Munch (Germany) and Louis-Dominique Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso) (A/54/110).

Presiding over this afternoon's meeting will be the Permanent Representative of the Seychelles, Ambassador Claude Morel.  The Assembly President, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, is on a visit to several Middle East countries.  He returns to New York on 17 May.

Question:  Where will the interactive round-table sessions take place?

Answer:  In the ECOSOC Chamber, which is to be reconfigured for the sessions.