Slovenia assumed the chairmanship of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday. Ernest Petric, the Slovenian ambassador to the IAEA, who will chair the board in the coming term, said that the chairman must make sure the board takes the necessary decisions and ensures that the IAEA works normally.
Slovenia is assuming the chairmanship following the close of the 50th General Conference of the IAEA that took place in Vienna last week.
"The role of Slovenia and the chairman will primarily be to make sure that the organisation functions normally. The chairman of the Board of Governors does not have an own agenda, but he can put forward initiatives in certain matters and makes sure, in particular through diplomatic consultations, that there is a harmonisation of views in the board," Petric said.
According to him, this is often a difficult task, for there are major differences between member states on a series of issues related to nuclear energy, especially on non-proliferation, oversight of nuclear activities and nuclear fuel and transport of nuclear substances.
"The Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes are only two of the most visible examples where views, in particular on Iran, strongly diverge," Petric added. It will be a great achievement if Slovenia succeeds in contributing to a solution, or at least a normalisation, of the Iranian nuclear issue, he said.
The second big challenge will be the organisation's budget and multi-year financial projections, an issue to be tackled together with the IAEA secretariat. Negotiations will be tough and likely to last the whole year, Petric explained.
Petric also pointed out that the nuclear standoff with Iran and North Korea has made the IAEA politically more exposed than it had been. This is why it has become customary that the chairman is a political person, not a member of the technical staff as had been the case before.
The 35-member IAEA Board of Governors is elected every year at the General Conference. Countries with the most advanced nuclear technology are permanent members, whereas others are elected for two-year periods based on proposals by regional groups.
Slovenia became a full-fledged member of the IAEA in 1992. It was a member of the Board of Governors between 1997 and 1999, acting as chairman in the second half of the term.
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