2. During the meeting

How and when to make an intervention?

Delegations may intervene at any time during the meeting, and there is no limit on the length of time for their intervention; however, it is advisable that you limit your intervention to what is strictly necessary in order to move the meeting forward.

It is important to coordinate your participation, especially if you have established alliances or made previous agreements with other contracting parties. Although repetition of points already raised by other contracting parties isnot well seen, you need to clarify your position with respect to a document that has attracted different points of view, or on which there is no agreement.

·     What language do I use?

All documents requiring a decision by the CPM are available in the official languages of the FAO (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish), but it is advisable to check the English version, as translations of original documents in that language may contain errors that can lead to misunderstandings or incorrect interpretation. During the plenary session, simultaneous interpretation is available in all the official FAO languages.

It is advisable that you speak in your mother tongue, as this allows you to better express the idea that you are conveying. Interventions should be clear and unhurried, and expressed in simple language to facilitate translation into other languages.

Interventions made in the plenary session should be provided, in writing, to the Secretariat. It is therefore recommended that you submit the text in your mother tongue for translation into English, in order to avoid incorrect interpretations, especially when the intervention relates to modifications to the decision part of a document.

·     How is the agenda structured?

The agenda of a meeting is subject to review on the first morning of the first day of the plenary session and at that time, a decision is taken with respect to the order in which the topics will be dealt with, as well as the times of the side meetings, among other things. For strategic reasons, it is sometimes necessary to change the original order of the points on the agenda. In such a case, the change should be proposed at the beginning of the meeting, when the adoption of the agenda is being discussed.

Meeting agendas always include a point called “Any Other Business” and contracting parties are asked to deal with certain topics under this agenda item. These should be mentioned when the agenda is being reviewed.

      On what issues should I be active and how do I achieve this?

All the meeting topics are important, since they are part of the normal activities of theCPM. However, topics requiring a decision are those which require the most active participation. This means that the wording of the operative part of the document submitted to the CPM for consideration has to be carefully examined. It is not advisable to make decisions on documents that have been presented and identified as information documents. Generally speaking, the delegate should be active throughout the meeting.

·     How should alliances be handled?

During the CPM meetings, you should renew and consolidate alliances that may have been formed before the session, and also establish new alliances with other contracting parties. You should therefore make use of the breaks and the periods before or after the plenary to make contact with possible allies on topics of interest.

·     How does one make an intervention?

Interventions should only be made when they are required for achieving the objectives established for the topics. In order to intervene on a topic, you must place your country sign in a vertical position and wait for the CPM Chairperson  to give you the floor. Once he has done so, you must switch on your microphone and speak briefly and concisely, but slowly enough to ensure correct interpretation of your comments into FAO languages. Immediately after speaking, it is customary to thank the Chairperson again, switch off your microphone and place your country sign in the horizontal position.

How do I plan the meeting?

At the end of the first day when the agenda items have been decided, and the times of the other meetings and sessions have been determined, it is advisable that you prepare a chronological order of the activities for the week in order to better plan your participation in those that are critical. In this way, delegations can assign responsibilities to their members and coordinate with other delegations, or within regional groups, with respect to their mode of participation.