7. The representative of the European Communities thanked the Chairman for his clarification and expressed his appreciation of the Chair's remark at the beginning of the meeting that GI extension should now be dealt with at the TNC level. He said that he was fairly comfortable with this way of proceeding and was looking forward to a fast decision to effectively negotiate GI extension and, if there were specific requests, also other implementation-related issues. His agreement to exclude GI extension from the agenda did not imply any acceptance that extension was off the table. In fact, he believed, having heard the Chair's explanation, that this was certainly not the intention of the Council and that nobody was aiming at such an outcome.
8. His delegation also had a strong interest to ensure equal treatment of all implementation-related issues. In this regard, he was sympathetic towards the remarks made by Bulgaria and Switzerland. One could question whether the draft agenda really guaranteed equal treatment, and whether items D and G on the reviews of Articles 27.3(b) and 71.1 did already offer ample scope to discuss matters relating to the CBD and the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore. However, given the Chair's clarification, he was prepared to work on the basis of the proposed agenda, with the understanding that equal treatment was on everybody's mind and that the TNC was the right level to discuss both procedure and substance as regards GI extension and additionally, if requested, other implementation-related issues.
