Having considered the report on progress of implementation of country programmes: implications of using different baseline years (UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/22/70), which had been prepared in response to its Decisions 20/36 and 20/37, and the report on discrepancies between data reported to the Ozone Secretariat and the Fund Secretariats, (UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/22/71), which had been prepared in response to Decision 20/37, the Executive Committee decided:
(a) To take note of the paper on the new format for reporting data on progress of implementation of country programmes to the Executive Committee and the paper on reconciling and harmonizing the data streams that produce discrepancies between data reported to the Fund and Ozone Secretariats.
(b) To adopt, beginning in 1998, the baseline year of the Montreal Protocol as the baseline year for the Multilateral Fund;
(c) To use, until it is feasible to use the baseline year of the Montreal Protocol as the baseline year for the Multilateral Fund, the baseline data from the country programme, the consumption data from the previous year and the unconstrained growth indicated in the country programme, while making it clear in the report that the latter figure is an extrapolation made at an early stage of the ODS phase-out programme in the country concerned;
(d) To note the new data formats contained in annexes I to III of the report on implications of using different baseline years, as contained in Annex VII to [document UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/22/79/Rev.1], which could be used as guidance for countries that wished to report information on progress in the implementation of their country programmes additional to the current requirements;
(e) To adopt the date of 1 May of each year as the new deadline for submission of data on the progress of implementation of country programmes for the preceding year. The new deadline would take effect in 1998.