Nice hosted last 26-28 March the 51st General Assembly of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which commemorated its 20th anniversary.
The Assembly approved the membership of new members, including bodies from Australia, India and Russia, which raises to 707 the number of associates and is indicative of the increasing geographic scope of ETSI's activity. A new member was also elected to the Finance Committee, René Dönni Kuoni, from the Swiss regular (BAKOM), who replaces Josef Schmid of Informatik Strategieorgan Bund, also from Switzerland, who left office. Also approved were the report, accounts and closure of the 2007 budget, which highlighted a revenue surplus that will enable a credit of 300 euros per contribution unit when the associates' quotas are next set.
The Director-General reported on the current status of budget execution for 2008 and consequently the guidelines for preparing the 2009 budget, which will favour maintaining the value of the contribution units without jeopardising attention to the eventual impact of various consolidation movements on the sector and size of the companies that have also been joining ETSI.
The Council first presented a set of possible strategic issues in 2009, at the level of both technical standardisation activity and the inner workings of ETSI, which must nevertheless be further worked out.
The meeting saw development of the preparatory work to elect a new General Assembly presidency, as well as a new Council, including definition of the configuration of same and the way to hold the election. Both elections will be held at the next Assembly.
The Assembly also debated the way to approach ETSI's long term vision, as well as a set of operational issues concerning standardisation activity per se. In the area of co-operation, the signing of a memorandum of understanding with SatLabs was approved, along with a Co-operation Agreement with the Fixed Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA) and renewal of the memorandum with the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA).
As ETSI's 20th anniversary is being commemorated, four discussion panels were also set up, with a number of guest speakers, some of them from other standardisation organisations, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and sector companies, as well as previous heads of ETSI departments. Besides a historical overview of ETSI, a preview of standardisation activity was also provided and possible synergies between ETSI and other bodies debated.
The 52nd General Assembly will also take place in Nice, on 25-26 November 2008.
