The 15th meeting of the ECO Council was held at its offices in Copenhagen on 1-2 December 2016, chaired by Portugal.
The Council approved the final version of the Office’s budget for 2017 and the 2018-2019 financial plan, whose preliminary version had already been examined at the spring Council meeting. The contributory unit (CU) that administrations pay to the ECO will be maintained in the next year, as has occurred since 2003.
Given the volatile international financial environment, the fact that nearly a year ago Danish banks began implementing negative interest rates for their clients and the high level of net capital, a decision was made, on a proposal from the Council chair, to again consider the ECO’s financial and investment policy. The director was thus asked to prepare a document to send in February or March to the 35 administrations that finance the ECO, containing specific proposals with a view to reducing the excessive level of net capital, and to study options to control the eventual risk of bank bankruptcy that might affect the Office’s reserves.
The following should figure among the proposals to advance: the option for temporary and gradual CU reduction (e.g. during a specific trial period, including the year-on year-off payment option); or the option for a single substantial reduction in CU payment; the possibility of the ECO financing meetings with more than 60 participants (the capacity of the Office’s biggest meeting room), as administrations have found it increasingly difficult to organise and host such meetings; or development of new software that CEPT can benefit from; or analysis of the need to hire additional experts, consulting in that regard the chairs of the working groups and of the Steering Committee of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC).
The council members will be consulted beforehand about recommendations to include in this paper and may also internally consult their financial experts and add other proposals and recommendations. This document will be discussed at the next spring Council. A decision was also made to maintain suspended for the time being the ECO’s usual policy of investing in bonds and other low-risk investments, as the Office has traditionally been advised to do by managers of the ECO’s two bank accounts.
By initiative of the ECO director, various Office staff members reported to the Council about projects they are directly accompanying, concerning, for example: reorganising the Office’s new website (CEPT-ECO-ECC-ComITU-CERP website), launched on 15 December; development of new coding phases for the Spectrum Engineering Advanced Monte Carlo Analysis Tool and launch of its new version 6 in 2017; developments in the scope of the ECO frequency information system and documentation database; and the audit of the Office’s computer system and the need to adopt a more consolidated IT security policy.
Finally, an appraisal was made of the feasibility study for the option of the ECO’s future management of the directory/database of transnational emergency calls to European public safety answering points (PSAP), i.e. ‘112’ Centres, at the request of the European Emergency Number Association, a non-governmental organisation. The Numbering and Networks group currently has a consultation under way on this subject; a final decision should be adopted by the ECC at its June meeting. At Portugal’s request, the council members decided that the ECO will seek analysis of the legal impacts of ECO management of the PSAP Directory before the final ECC decision, and not a posteriori as had been considered.
The director informed the Council about the extension until 16 December 2016 of the candidacy deadline for the process of selecting the new frequency management expert, owing to the low number of candidacies submitted. The new international expert, who will replace Stella Lyubchenko of Russia, will be chosen in February and should begin duties in May 2017. On the other hand, and to anticipate a possible need, the Council approved extending the current expert’s contract for six more months.
Inherently and as chair of the ECO Council Portugal takes part in the hiring panel whose composition, besides a member who is usually the vice-chair of the ECO Council, includes the director of the Office and the chair of the Frequency Management working group. The Council was also informed that staff member Bente Pedersen, the Office’s longest-serving employee, would retire on 15 April 2017 and that the director would make the decision on her replacement.
The Council noted that in early June the remaining eleven administrations which are CEPT members but have not joined the ECO Convention (as Slovenia and Malta did in March 2016), and which account for 22 contributory units, had been formally contacted. All of them (Albania, Andorra, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, San Marino, Serbia and Ukraine) will potentially join and pay just one unit, except for Russia (10 CUs).
The chair and vice-chair reported to the Council the second assessment of the new director’s performance, made during the two days before the Council meeting. All the Office’s staff were interviewed and council members were asked to send reactions by email. The employees, both experts and administrative staff, as well as council members, generally indicated that they were clearly satisfied with the ECO director’s management and performance.
The next meeting has been scheduled for 3-4 May 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the invitation of the administration from the United Kingdom.
