The CEPT working group responsible for essentially political and strategy issues concerning the ITU (WG ITU) met on 13-14 October in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The following issues, among others, were covered at this WG ITU meeting:
- Status of the various Council groups involved with the financial area [New Council Oversight Group (NCOG), FINREG, group on the strategy and finance plan];
- Discussion of proposals received by the ITU ahead of the next meeting of the Telecommunications Development Advisory Group. Agreement was reached on CEPT?s position regarding the development of work methods and procedures for TDAG;
- Within the scope of the ITU Development Sector (ITU-D), and with a mind to its next World Conference, the possibility of producing European common proposals (ECP) on subjects such as number and the scope of the Communications Development Department (BDT), the ITU?s role as the body executing the United Nations development programme and efficient use of the ITU?s regional presence were debated;
- The status of the situation regarding the PrepCom3 results, especially aspects that are still open and which will thus be studied in extraordinary meetings (two sessions). These should naturally take place before the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS);
- Regarding the Standardisation Sector (ITU-T), the group was informed about the progress of co-ordination work ahead of the next meeting of this sector?s advisory committee (TSAG);
- Regarding preparations for the next Plenipotentiary Conference, the group was informed that ECP were being prepared on subjects such as the financial, strategic and operational plans, ITR, modification of the Telecom fairs framework, disbandment of the Co-ordination Committee, cutbacks in the number of elected officials, provisions concerning observers from sector members, provisions on observers in the Council, contributions from sector members and associates, cost-recovery, financial stability, various ECP concerning the revision of Decisions, Recommendations and Resolutions (including those involving radiocommunications) and moving forward the elections during the PP ? note that, according to the current schedule, these proposals should be studied for WG ITU approval at its January 2006 meeting;
- A decision was also made to maintain as active the existing channels for co-ordinating with other regions. Given that the next PP will last one week less than it traditionally has in the past, this co-ordination is expected to be particularly important;
- The status of the mechanism for co-ordinating European candidates for elected posts in the ITU was considered and it was noted that there are European candidates for positions that CEPT had not deemed to be priorities for Europe and which, as such, may be counterproductive vis-à-vis achievement of the European aim to elect the Secretary General and the Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau. Spain?s candidature for Vice Secretary General and Italy?s for Director of the Telecommunications Standardisation Bureau (TSB) are in this situation. Switzerland upholds its intention to provide a candidate for the position of Secretary General parallel to the German candidature, despite CEPT?s support of the latter. Given these difficulties, and taking into account that the administrations are indeed sovereign in such matters, a decision was made to keep CEPT members informed about European candidatures or those outside CEPT which may arise, and about the appeal made by several administrations for the CEPT countries not to work against each other;
- Regarding the co-ordination of candidatures for posts on the Council and the Radio Regulation Board (RRB), for which there is no agreed procedure within CEPT, a decision was made that the solution should initially involve an attempt at co-ordination between the countries actually concerned. For the time being, CEPT will not undertake any intervention on this matter.
The next WG ITU meeting will be held on 25-26 January in Portugal.
