Postal Operations Council (02-09.02.2004) - Berne

The 2004 annual session of the Postal Operations Council (POC) of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), chaired by Portugal, was held on 2-9 February in Berne, where the various action groups, project teams, commissions and co-operatives met.

Portugal was represented at three levels, by the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM) the CTT-Correios de Portugal (Portuguese postal service) and the POC presidency.

A number of meetings were held at this gathering, among them:

• The World Terminal Dues Round Table, on 2-3 February – in the context of the UPU’s work on Terminal Dues (TD), a convergence proposal was discussed which refers to the classification of countries and to the Quality of Service Improvement Fund; the relationship of TD with monitored quality of service and relations with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were also discussed;

• Terminal Dues Action Group, on 4 February – the International Secretariat presented the TD system applicable to industrialised countries for 2004 and 2005, while the World Terminal Dues Round Table chairperson presented the results of same and this action group’s various project teams submitted their respective reports^{1https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55129};

• POC Plenary Session, on 5-9 February – the annual report on the activities of this Council, the Bucharest World Postal Strategy (BWPS) and the work undertaken in the various commissions was presented. Among the latter the report from the Responsibility project team and the FMQS working group of the POC’s Management Committee stands out. Also dealt with at the session were the work of the Terminal Dues Action Group and the Quality of Service project team, preparation of the Bucharest Congress, the system for choosing POC members, organisation of the first POC session after the congress and approval after the POC of the reports and proposals to submit to the Congress.

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^{1 Special focus was generally given to the principles applicable to future TD system with regard to fees, transition items, the relationship with service quality, statistics and accounting principles. Also reported was the work concerning extra-territorial offices of exchange.}