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1.Takes note of the proposal for the development of a memorandum of understanding between the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention and the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme concerning the provision of secretariat functions;
2.Recognizes that openness, transparency and the application of an equal and harmonized approach to the relationship between the United Nations Environment Programme and the multilateral environmental agreement secretariats that it administers should apply to the development and implementation of institutional arrangements for the provision of the secretariat functions for the respective agreements;
3.Takes note of the request of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme, set out in its decision 27/13 of 22 February 2013, which followed two similar requests at earlier sessions of the Governing Council to the Executive Director to deepen consultations with the multilateral environmental agreements for which the United Nations Environment Programme provides the secretariat in the preparation, by 30 June 2013, of a full report on the relationship between the United Nations Environment Programme and those multilateral environmental agreements and for the submission of a final report on that subject to the United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme at its 2014 session and to the governing bodies of those multilateral environmental agreements;
4.Notes that, in accordance with United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/283 of 7 July 2006, the United Nations Secretariat, including the United Nations Environment Programme, will implement the International Public Service Accounting Standards with effect from 1 January 2014, replacing the current United Nations System Accounting Standards;1
5.Acknowledges the potential impact of resolution 60/283 on the provision of secretariat functions to the Convention, including issues such as the appropriate size of the working capital reserve, and, in this context, expressesits regret that the full report referred to in paragraph 3 above was not available to facilitate informed decision‑making at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
6.Invites the Executive Secretary to actively engage in the consultations undertaken by the United Nations Environment Programme, bearing in mind the legal autonomy of the Basel Convention and the decision-making powers of the Conference of the Parties in relation to the provision of secretariat functions;
7.Requests the Executive Secretary to report on those consultations and their possible impact on the proposed memorandum of understanding between the Executive Director and the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention to the Bureau, during the intersessional period, and to the Conference of the Parties at its twelfth meeting;