Dear Mr. Verga and Mr. Söderman,

Thank you for your letter of 22nd February, regarding legal scrutiny of ECOMET procedures.

We fully agree that a date needs to be decided by both PRIMET and ECOMET, regarding completion of the package that we planned to make available for legal scrutiny, when this matter was discussed in Oslo in November 2004.

Our understanding was that PRIMET was to refine its document (presented at Oslo) given the discussion at that meeting, for example by removing references to ECMWF and EUMETSAT and focusing on matters relating to the ECOMET procedures on a European level.

ECOMET would submit an explanatory note, together with the ECOMET basic documents. The combined material would form the package for legal scrutiny.

Perhaps we could tentatively suggest a date of 30 September 2005 to exchange documents between the President of ECOMET and the Secretary General of PRIMET, to ensure that the documents are restricted to documentation and discussion of the rules and practices of ECOMET, so as to make the task of the legal firm as clear as possible. The final package could then be completed by the end of October by correspondence between the President and Secretary General.

In the spirit of aiming to come to better relations between PRIMET and ECOMET, the GA felt that an independent legal view, from one legal firm agreed by both parties would help to clear the matter and enable progress. In parallel with compiling the package of documents, we suggest that choice of the legal firm and formulation of the task to be carried out is to be agreed between the President of the GA and the Secretary General of PRIMET.

Regards,

Anton Eliassen
President of the ECOMET General Assembly

Cc R. Hoenson, Chief Executive, ECOMET