The CEPT working group on ITU Affairs met last 15-16 January in Copenhagen. WG ITU is responsible for essentially policy and strategy issues concerning the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), namely at the level of the Plenipotentiary Conference (PP), the Council and the advisory groups of that Union's sectors. The meeting was overseen by the new chairman in office, Anders Frederich (Sweden), whose mandate ends in 2010 [as a rule, the WG ITU chair is appointed after a PP and remains until the end of the work inherent to that Conference], and counted the participation of 13 administrations.
The group focused particularly on the following issues:
- Preparation of the World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly (WTSA), set for 21-30 October in Johannesburg (South Africa) - Results of the most recent meeting of the Telecommunications Standardisation Advisory Group (TSAG) were studied and the reference terms and mandate approved for the project team (PT) preparing for that Assembly (PT WTSA08). The group also dealt with some issues that may be debated at WTSA and scheduled the PT's preparatory meetings; the first will be held on 11-12 February in Geneva;
- Analysis of the conditions for observers to take part in meetings of WG ITU and respective PTs - Work on this issue was not completed and will be resumed at the working group's next meeting;
- Review of developments stemming from the meeting of the expert group on the International Telecommunications Regulation (ITR) - With a view to aligning the European position on the issue and to prepare future meetings of the expert group, WG ITU created a correspondence group on revision of the Regulation, headed by Vince Affleck (United Kingdom);
- Analysis of the first version of the report from the ITU secretary-general for the World Telecommunications Policy Forum (WTPF), along with the comments presented by Sweden and the United Kingdom - A decision was made to set up a correspondence group to prepare for the forum, headed by Vince Affleck (United Kingdom);
- Preparation of the 2010 World Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-10) - The convenience of setting up various coordination project teams was analysed, instead of just one, as usual, so that the work can be distributed fairly, which with suitable co-ordination may make CEPT actions more effective.
The next meeting of this group, which will pay special attention to completing preparations for the WTSA, has been scheduled for 11-12 September 2008 in Copenhagen. The group will additionally meet on 10-11 November 2008 in Geneva to prepare for the ITU Council session.
