- conference time until the first half of 2025 (9 within existing resources and 6 through additional resources), which would be followed by deliberations by the Commission to finalize the project in 2025 at its fifty-eighth session. Considering that certain reform options would be subject to approval in principle by the Commission prior to the fifty- eighth session, existing conference time would need to be allocated to those topics during the fifty-fifth to the fifty-seventh session of the Commission.
- 21. Meetings of the Commission and its working groups are held using conference time allotted to UNCITRAL, which is currently a maximum of fifteen weeks per year. Therefore, the Woking Group could, in principle, request the Commission to allocate 12 any unused conference time of the Commission or other working groups to the ISDS 13 Project, which had been the case for the unused week of the Commission in 2019 14 and the case of the Rotterdam Rules project.
- 22. However, this is subject to change on a yearly basis, as the Commission reiterated that the duration of each of its annual sessions was to be determined on a case-by-case basis depending on the expected workload. For example, the Commission decided to hold a three-week session in 2021. Furthermore, determination by the Commission to allocate its unused conference time to a working group during its annual session (usually held in June or July) poses practical challenges of identifying a suitable conference t ime in the second half of the year and rescheduling other working group dates. It also leads to difficulties in planning, as the Working Group would not be able to know whether it would meet for one or two weeks in the second half of the year and if so, when.
- 23. If the Working Group decides to request additional conference time, it may wish to consider whether to retain the one-week session pattern or to hold two-week sessions. The Working Group may wish to further consider whether measures should be put in place to allow for remote participation by delegations to address concerns expressed about their costs of travel. Such changes in the pattern of meetings or introduction of means to facilitate remote participation would require further consultations with the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM).

###### 3. Programme budget implications

- 24. If the Working Group and eventually the Commission decides to recommend to the General Assembly that additional conference time be allocated to the Commission for advancing the ISDS project, this will then need to be reflected in the draft resolution submitted to the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly. In that process, the budgetary implications of the request on the programme budget (mainly Section 2 - General Assembly and Economic and Social Council affairs and conference management and Section 8 - Legal affairs) would be reviewed by different bodies, including the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly.
- 25. This section provides an overview of the programme budget implications so that the Working Group would be in a better position to make an informed decision. However, it should be noted that the budget implications could vary depending on the actual request made by the Commission (including the venue of the meetings, their format, and which duty station provides the relevant services). All figures in this section are subject to further verification by the Programme Planning and Budget Division (PPBD). The Working Group may wish to further note that the figures below relate to the formal meetings of the Working Group and do not take into resources required for

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