Recommendation

3. Membership of the MPWG

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  timing and nature of such involvement and the balance to be struck between ensuring the MPWG is ‘comprehensive’ in membership without being so large as to be unwieldy;
  

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  need for the public commitment made by manufacturers at COP 6 to be replicated by others stakeholders;
  

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  challenges of involving all relevant companies. It was felt that while Manufacturers were a small definable group, network operators, recycling companies and others were groups that were very large in size;
  

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  importance of written information being made available to all MPWG members and to the Parties/Signatories in a timely manner;
  

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  possibility of developing a set of criteria to determine who to involve, when and where;
  

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  recognition of the need to refer policy matters to the Parties through the Open-ended Working Group.
  

Noting that Decision VI/31 established the MPWG as “a small group of experts from Parties and/or Signatories … plus … mobile telephone manufacturers and a representative of the secretariat” and further stated that “As appropriate, other stakeholders³ will be invited by the group to participate actively in its work, the MPWG recommends that it would operate most effectively on the basis of two levels of participation:

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  the first at the MPWG level itself which needed to be limited in order to facilitate productive debate, timely decisions on specific projects, and timely recommendations to the OEWG;
  

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  the second at the project level that needed to be open to maximise available expertise and hands-on experience.
  

While keeping itself small as required under Decision VI/31, the MPWG welcomes participation of further interested parties and/or signatories to join either the MPWG or its project groups⁴. Other interested stakeholders are invited to indicate their interest in joining particular project groups and advise the expertise they would bring to the project.

Most of the time at the meeting was spent on finalising the draft 2003-2004 work programme, for consideration by the Open-ended Working Group.

The Working Group noted with appreciation the substantial contribution of the Government of Switzerland to the MPPI to date and the personal involvement and leadership provided by the COP 5 President, State Secretary Philippe Roch.