WG ITU - Budapest

WG ITU, the CEPT working group that covers basically political and strategy issues involving the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), met on 6-7 April in Budapest.
 
Bearing in mind the recent holding of the ITU Development Sector Conference (WTDC-06), as well as the Union?s upcoming Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-06), this meeting essentially focused on studying the results of WTDC-06 and preparing for PP-06.
 
Regarding preparations for PP-06, the group analysed and adopted the following European common proposals (ECPs):
 
- Proposed ECP on the future of the ITU;
 
- Proposed ECP on clarifying the responsibilities of the Union?s secretary general in managing the ITU and elimination of the Co-ordination Committee ? note that, at WG ITU level, two administrations, the United Kingdom (which had participated in drawing up the proposal) and Italy, reserved the right to come out against the proposal at PP-06;
 
- Proposed ECP on improving the management of Telecom fairs.
 
The group also debated the proposed ECP on appointing office directors instead of electing them (the aim is for elections to be limited to the positions of secretary general and deputy secretary general). This proposal, which has been under preparation by Portugal and the United Kingdom, was brought up at this meeting basically to receive comments that will subsequently be studied by the project team in charge of preparing for PP-06 (PT PP-06), with a view to approving an ECP on the issue at the next WG ITU meeting.
 
This meeting also largely focused on preparing for the ITU Council in April. Thus, most of the documents studied effectively consisted of the Council documents distributed in the meanwhile.
 
The next meeting will be held on 21-22 June in Vilnius, Lithuania.