Agenda

1. On the results of the September 21 meeting of the working group on the memorandum at the Oil Fund and on the results of the discussions on the coalition’s proposals.

2. On the international conference on the EITI scheduled in Baku for November 2005 organized and attended by the coalition.

3. On work carried out on the projects of the coalition.

4. Current issues

Decisions taken at the sitting

1. Sabit Bagirov said that the coalition’s new proposals (new report forms offered by the commission – 6 June 2005 and changes proposed by the coalition to the Agreement Memorandum – 19 April 2005) were discussed and a decision was made not to accept the switch to new report forms, because the proposed changes went beyond the EITI principles and require their further expansion. At the same time, a proposal was made that the coalition can file a direct appeal for issues of interest to it (for example, to the AIOC for form No 0 for the operator). The participants in the meeting of the council decided that if other members of the council agree, they will appeal to the AIOC in order to hand over information regarding form No 0 to the coalition. BP-Azerbaijan invited coalition coordinator Sabit Bagirov on 22 October, clarified questions in form No 0 and said that apart from one question, which could be regarded as a commercial secret, it was possible to answer other questions. Bagirov reminded the participants that the coalition had earlier appealed to BP to organize a meeting with members of the council of BP appropriate specialist to clarify issues related to commercial secrets in projects. On 22 October, the coalition received a reply that in order to answer questions of interest to the coalition in connection with the activities of BP, the president of BP-Azerbaijan, David Woodward, was ready to meet representatives of the coalition. The venue and timing of that meeting will be clarified soon. While discussing the coalition’s proposal in connection with individual statements, the BP representative said that they had already made individual statements and had published them in the press and on their website. BP also appealed to other companies in connection with the publication of their reports in an individual manner. Five companies have already agreed with this. The coalition’s proposal regarding relations with auditors was adopted with some changes in the text. Another proposal of the coalition – mention of the establishment of the working group in the memorandum – was also accepted.

2. Bagirov said that the coalition plans to hold a conference on the EITI in November. Part of the financial means required for this – 5,000 dollars – have already been transferred by the Ebert Foundation. Since these funds were not enough, we appealed to the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation for additional financial support and received their preliminary agreement. A short while ago, the Azerbaijani government also announced its plans to hold an international conference dedicated to the same subject. Plans to hold a joint conference were discussed and agreed at a meeting with SOFAR executive director Samir Sharifov. At the proposal of the DFID (The British government’s foreign assistance department), the DFID and the Azerbaijani government agreed on the agenda of the conference. The participants in the sitting discussed the draft agenda of the conference agreed by the DFID and the Azerbaijani government. Various opinions were put forward and a decision was made to prepare proposals regarding the agenda of the council taking account of the opinions that were voiced.

3. The discussion of this issue was postponed due to the lack of quorum since some of the members of the council did not participate in the sitting.

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Last correction date of the file: 24/7/2008 - 14:56:36