Jean-Pol Poncelet is no longer candidate for becoming the new Director-general of IAEA

Jean-Pol Poncelet will not take part in the vote on the nomination of a new Director-general in order to facilitate consensus-building at the IAEA

Brussels, July 1st 2009 Jean-Pol Poncelet will not take part in the vote on the nomination of a new Director-general in order to facilitate consensus-building at the IAEA Following the nomination of M. Jean-Pol Poncelet as candidate for the position of Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in April, the Belgian government has informed the Board of Governors of the Agency of the request of M. Poncelet not to take into consideration his candidature at the occasion of the vote scheduled to take place on July 2nd 2009. With this decision, Mr. Jean-Pol PONCELET continues to aim at facilitating consensus-building within the Board of Governors of the IAEA on the important and urgent decision to nominate a successor to the outgoing Director General. It is the strong desire of Mr. Jean-Pol PONCELET that the Board of Governors at its upcoming meeting will be able to arrive at a satisfactory outcome. In the unfortunate case that this would not be possible, Mr. Jean-Pol PONCELET confirms that he remains at the disposal of the Members of the Board of Governors for any further consultation that they may deem appropriate. Belgium remains convinced that the Director General of the IAEA should have the capacity to gather the required broad support for the decisive actions that the Agency will need to undertake in view of the many challenges it is facing. In this spirit, Belgium hopes that the Board of Governors will be able to decide without undue delay on the appointment of a new Director General of the Agency.