Closing remarks by Ramzi Jammal at the Convention on Nuclear Safety Officer's Turnover Meeting at IAEA headquarters

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Vienna, Austria

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues:

Today has been a great day, with much information shared. As Deputy Director General Juan Carlos Lentijo mentioned in his opening remarks, the Secretariat will ask Contracting Parties to consider providing voluntary contributions to help cover the costs of interpretation at the Review Meeting. I would like to ask you to support the Deputy Director General’s request.

Several times today, we discussed the decision at the Diplomatic Conference that the Seventh Review Meeting would perform a peer review. This review will evaluate how Contracting Parties have incorporated appropriate criteria and standards in their national requirements and regulations, to address the principles included in the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety. To this end, I would like to inform you that I have asked the Secretariat to prepare an outlined project plan for the peer review by March 31. I have also approached a candidate for the role of special rapporteur, who will work with us to prepare for and lead the discussions.

I would like to thank all of today’s presenters for their contributions. Sharing experiences and lessons learned is very important and helpful in supporting more effective reviews under the CNS.

Mr. Lacoste and Mr. Majerus made several valuable suggestions for improvement, which you – the Officers – will need to consider for adoption and implementation at your future meetings. In particular, the way forward for identifying good practices needs to be decided and continuously reinforced.

Furthermore, it was very useful to hear from the President of the Fifth Review Meeting of the Joint Convention with regards to his experiences. Thank you David, once again.

I would also like to thank Miro and the IAEA Secretariat for their organization and coordination of today’s meeting and the upcoming training sessions.

I want to ensure that you are all aware of the importance of your roles at the upcoming meeting. Your participation will lead to a successful Seventh Review Meeting.

On that note, I would like to thank you for taking the time to attend and for demonstrating your commitment to the CNS process. I know that you all have busy lives with your regular jobs, and that it is not always easy to add yet another task to your already busy schedule. I commend you for your commitment to global nuclear safety.

We have frequently discussed the need to agree on templates for the Country Review Reports and National presentations. I would like to inform you that the Secretariat will organize an Officers’ Meeting for the week of December 5, 2016, so please book your calendars now. To aid the discussion at that meeting, I have decided to form a Working Group, open to all Contracting Parties, to prepare draft templates ahead of time.  An announcement about this will be made shortly.

Although I won’t be attending the Officers’ training meeting, I know that you have full days ahead and I am sure the discussions will be informative and engaging. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, I will spend tomorrow meeting with the Permanent Representatives of some Contracting Parties to promote their participation at the Seventh Review Meeting. As an example of teamwork, where team members are assigned duties for the common good, Mr. Schwarz has agreed to chair tomorrow’s meeting.

Finally, I would be happy to hear from any of you if you have any concerns or questions about my goals as President of the Seventh Review Meeting. Please feel free to contact me via one of my advisors, whose coordinates are Philip.Webster@international.gc.ca and Jennifer.Pyne@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca. These are also posted on the CNS secure website.

I look forward to seeing you all again in early December or, failing that, next February. Thank you and I wish you all safe travels home.