The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat would like to inform you that the Standing Committee, at its 19th extraordinary Meeting on 27 September 2021, approved two draft Resolutions to be submitted to the Contracting Parties for adoption via a written silence procedure: Draft Resolution on the postponement of MOP8 and Draft Resolution on Financial and Administrative matters (budget for 2022).

This written silence procedure for adopting resolutions, first needs to be specifically authorised by a written procedure itself. A detailed letter from the Chair of the Standing Committee on this matter is attached to this notification.

The Secretariat would like to urge all National Focal Points to carefully consider the letter and its Annex 1 (Draft Resolution Ex. 1 on the Adoption of Resolutions […] via a silence procedure) and to provide any comments or objections to the procedure described not later than 15 October 2021. Any objection should be directed through official letter or Note Verbale to both:

Mr. Simon Mackown, Chair of the Standing Committee: simon.mackown@defra.gov.uk and

Mr. Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary: aewa.secretariat@unep-aewa.org

Resolution Ex. 1 will be considered as adopted effective 16 October 2021 in the absence of any formal objection by National Focal Points to AEWA. Once adopted, it will enable the Chair of the Standing Committee to submit, in a second letter, the draft Resolutions on the postponement of MOP8 and on Financial and Administrative matters to the National Focal Points. Both draft Resolutions have been approved by the Standing Committee at StC19 and are attached to this correspondence for your information only at this stage. This is in order to enable National Focal Points to already prepare for the official national consultation processes, until they are officially sent to you by the Chair of the Standing Committee with a new deadline of 6 weeks.

Finally, the Secretariat wishes to point out that it will be crucial for the further functioning of the Secretariat until MOP8 to have a budget in place for 2022 by the end of this year. As a consequence, it will not be possible to consider an extension to the above-mentioned deadline of 15 October.

For more details, please contact the AEWA Secretariat at aewa.secretariat@unep-aewa.org