The Commission was pleased to accept an offer from Antigua and Barbuda to host the 2024 meeting of the Scientific Committee.
The Commission was pleased to accept an offer from Peru to host IWC69.
The Commission was pleased to confirm that the 2023 meeting of the Scientific Committee meeting will be in Slovenia.
The Commission agreed that new Bureau comprises Guinea (Chair of the Commission), Australia (Vice-chair of the Commission), USA (Chair of F&A), Argentina (serving 2 yrs), Belgium (serving 6 years), Ghana (serving 4 years) and St Lucia (serving 4 years).
The Chair of the Commission, Andrej Bibic (Slovenia) completed his term of office at the end of the meeting. Andrej was thanked for his unprecedented four year term and also for hosting six meetings of the IWC and SC. -The Vice-chair, Amadou Diallo (Guinea) was elected Chair. - Nick Gales (Australia) was elected Vice-chair.
The Commission endorsed the four SC Meeting Reports for 2019,20,21,22 .
The budget for 2023-24, Option 1.5 as presented in the document BSC/68/5.3/01/Rev2 was adopted including the operative decisions presented in this document and summarised below. It was adopted by vote: 48 for, 1 against, 0 abstentions. - The agreed budget increases fees only for Capacity to Pay countries 3 & 4 by 5% in 2023, 1% in 2024 and reduces expenditure by 6%. The budget includes: ? A moderate change to the terms of Secretariat staff contracts to lower compensation. ? A moderate change to the research budget and move to biennial SC meetings from 2025 onwards. ? Virtual bureau meetings except at Commission meetings. ? Virtual pre-meetings for Commission meetings. ? Reduction of Commission meetings by 1 day. ? Bad debt provision reduction. NOTE: fee distribution and the level of contributions will need to be revisited at IWC69.
The Commission agreed to ? Consider the IWC conducting meetings in a hybrid format and/or allowing for absentee voting, to facilitate the participation of all contracting governments.
The Commission agreed to ? Consider issues related to obtaining visas for contracting governments to participate in IWC meetings.
The Commission agreed to ? Further consideration of the proposal to make payment plans more accessible: voting rights could be restored regardless of the length of time in arrears, provided the Contracting Government enters into and adheres to a re-payment plan, including an upfront good-faith payment.
