A/RES/59/226 encouraged to submit their comments, in a timely manner, on the important but complex issue of establishing universal membership of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, including its legal, political, institutional, financial and system-wide implications, in order to contribute to the report of the SecretaryGeneral to be submitted to the General Assembly for consideration before its sixtieth session, Takes note of the report of the Governing Council of the United Nations 1. Environment Programme on its eighth special session 5 and the decisions contained therein; 2. Also takes note of the report of the Secretary-General submitted pursuant to its resolutions 57/251 and 58/209; 6 3. Notes that the Governing Council, at its eighth special session, discussed all components of the recommendations on international environmental governance, as contained in its decision SS.VII/1,4 and notes the continued discussion scheduled for its twenty-third session; 4. Emphasizes the need for the United Nations Environment Programme, within its mandate, to further contribute to sustainable development programmes, the implementation of Agenda 211 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation2 at all levels and to the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development, bearing in mind the mandate of the Commission on Sustainable Development; Calls upon all countries to further engage in the negotiations of the 5. intergovernmental strategic plan for technology support and capacity-building with a view to its adoption at the twenty-third session of the Governing Council, in February 2005; Notes the differences in the views expressed so far on the important but 6. complex issue of establishing universal membership for the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, notes also the upcoming consideration of the question of universal membership by the Council/Forum at its twenty-third session, encourages Member States, the Governing Council and the relevant bodies of the United Nations system that have not yet done so to submit their comments to the Secretariat on the important but complex issue of establishing universal membership for the Council/Forum, including the legal, political, institutional, financial and system-wide implications, as their contribution to the report of the Secretary-General and requests the Secretary-General to submit a report incorporating those views to the Assembly for consideration at its sixty-first session; Emphasizes the need to further enhance coordination and cooperation 7. among the relevant United Nations organizations in the promotion of the environmental dimension of sustainable development, and in this respect welcomes the continued participation of the United Nations Environment Programme in the United Nations Development Group; Calls upon the United Nations Environment Programme to continue to 8. contribute, within its mandate and as a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force, to the preparations for the International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the _______________ 5 6 2 Ibid., Fifty-ninth Session, Supplement No. 25 (A/59/25). A/59/262.