Geneva (27 October 2015): The SC meeting took place at Goldsmiths' Hall in London (UK) on 10 September 2015 and was attended by 73 officials representing 31 countries of which 19 Contracting States, 2 Applicant States (Croatia and Serbia) and guests from Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, France, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, South Africa, and Spain. The Convention's Depositary, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, also attended the meeting.
As this was the last meeting chaired by Mr Ronald W.A. Le Bas (Ireland), the SC elected a successor. Ms Dalia Yarom (Israeli Assay Office) was unanimously elected Chairman for a two-year term. The First Deputy Chairman, Mr Ashley Carson (Sheffield Assay Office), and the Second Deputy Chairperson, Ms. Maria Magdalena Ulaczyk (Polish Regional Assay Offices), were also re-elected for the same period (2016-2017).
The Depository informed Members that no objections had been received regarding the accession of Croatia and Serbia who have now been invited to accede to the Convention.
Members discussed problems related to the accession of Italy and the Ukraine and agreed on a way forward. The SC also discussed a revision of the Convention's Annexes and related Compilation of Technical Decisions, which had been prepared by the Standing Technical Group (STG). The revision will be re-discussed at the next meeting. The STG, led by Mr Thomas Brodmann (Swiss Assay Office), was also reappointed for a period of 2 years.
A new Working Group was established to look at the future vision and strategy of the Convention.
Statistics on articles marked with the Common Control Mark (CCM) show that Switzerland is now marking the most gold articles in the Convention. The UK continues to mark the most silver articles. The total number of articles marked in the first two quarters of 2015 with the CCM was 2,523,451 articles. This number does, however, not include the statistics from Norway.
Members bid farewell to the outgoing Chairman Mr Ronald W.A. La Bas (Ireland Assay Office): they gave him a standing ovation and presented him with a farewell gift.
The SC agreed to reconvene in Lisbon (Portugal) on 9 March 2016.