The 42nd meeting of the Advisory Committee (AC) of EUTELSAT IGO met last 28 September in Paris, chaired by Poland (Piotr Dmochowski-Lipski).
The meeting was attended by representatives of all seven states comprising the AC: France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland. Spain and Turkey took part as observers. Monaco (Frédéric Labarrere) was invited to attend as chair of the Assembly of Parties (AP).
The EUTELSAT IGO executive secretary reported the activities that have taken place since the last Committee meeting in April, especially concerning oversight of the company Eutelsat SA, which is monitored by the IGO and whose financial situation continues to ensure conditions enabling fulfilment of the basic principles and the public service obligations incumbent upon the operator.
The executive secretary reported that some savings had been accomplished, which will be channelled to the organisation’s pension fund (a total of 197,000 euros), and namely that he had opted not to acquire a new service vehicle and to use public transport. He added that regarding air travel he had sought more staff involvement and travelled with lower costs and not necessarily in executive class.
As usual, the company’s deputy CEO, Michel Azibert, gave an oral presentation to the AC, admitting that the group’s financial results continue to fall, beyond what was forecasted: in the financial year running from July 2017 to June 2018 there was a decrease in revenue (-1.9 percent), with particularly notable drops in fixed data services (-10.1 percent) and fixed broadband (-7.8 percent). Given widespread losses in the satellite industry, the operator’s representative considered that “the possibility of mergers and concentrations is likely”.
At this session the Committee paid special attention to reviewing the staff regulations, based on a proposal submitted by the secretariat and the AC chair, including various comments sent by the parties. The AC agreed that the future pensions system, to be dealt with at the next session, of extraordinary nature, will be reviewed by consultants.
Several parties submitted suggestions, specifically France, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland, countries which insisted on the need to make various points clear, particularly the budget implications of these updated staff regulations.
The next AC meeting has been scheduled for this coming 14 December. The next session, the last before the upcoming AP, will be held on 14-15 February 2019. The Assembly of Parties (AP41) is scheduled for 10-11 April 2019.
