XVI.1 The Committee decided that the twenty-fourth ordinary session of the Bureau would be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, from 26 June to 1 July 2000. The Committee adopted the provisional agenda for the session (Annex X), including the item proposed by the Delegate of Greece (training of personnel).
XVI.2 Several delegates noted that the follow-up to the General Assembly should be included in the agenda of the Bureau and that the discussion on this agenda item should be given enough time and attention. The Delegate of Hungary informed the Committee about the Resolution Number 40 of the thirtieth session of the General Conference dealing with the proposed World Heritage Fellowship Programme. This item should be included in the agenda of the Bureau meeting in order to prepare a report to be brought to the 160th session of the Executive Board. The Rapporteur asked for clarification whether this resolution was adopted by the Plenary session of the General Conference and whether this involved financial implications.
XVI.3 The Director of the Centre informed the Committee that, indeed, such a proposal was submitted for an amount of US$ 200,000 and that the Programme Commission IV of the General Conference of UNESCO took note of it, but that no budget allocation was made available. As a number of fellowships programmes already exist, the Centre will study the question and will report back to the next session of the Bureau. The Delegate of Thailand noted that no funds were provided for such a programme and that the Committee should not make any commitment at this stage but look further into this matter. The Delegate of Hungary noted that the resolution was adopted by the Plenary Meeting of the General Conference and that the Secretariat has to do the follow-up work and that at this stage it would not involve financial implications. He also recalled that this proposal was first presented at the session in Kyoto and is included as Annex II.4 of the report. The Delegate of Benin suggested that the Committee mandate the Chairperson to closely examine this question together with the Secretariat, and decide whether it should be studied by the Bureau as an aganda item, and that eventually an information document be prepared on the follow-up of the General Conference Resolution. This proposal was endorsed by the Chairperson and approved by the Committee. The Chairperson decided to request the Secretariat to review the situation and to report back to the next session of the Bureau.