The Advisory and Executive Council (AEC) of the Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal (UPAEP) met in Montevideo, Uruguay, last 12-14 March. The gathering was preceded by the Postal Regulation Forum and meetings of the working groups (WGs) on 10-11 March.
Discussion in the Postal Regulation Forum focused once again on the subjects of universal service and the respective financing model, the importance of gathering market information and the need for the Latin American countries to have (or not) a regulator when the postal sector situation in that region is so different from Europe's. France, an observer country, also gave a presentation on customs and the ''clearing customs'' figure. Plans for the next Regulation Forum include a presentation by Portugal on the European Postal Directive and its respective framework and implementation.
As a restricted union of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), UPAEP found it needed to reserve part of the AEC'08 agenda for matters of common interest for the UPAEP member countries that will be dealt with at the 24th UPU Congress, scheduled for 23 July-12 August in Geneva. To that end procedural issues associated to the presentation/support of proposals to the Congress and candidates for the two Councils were discussed. The UPAEP members were also informed of the proposal to reorganise the UPU Councils, and on Portugal's initiative a draft code of conduct to guide the UPAEP countries' actions during the Congress was put before the members for consideration.
The WG on Future UPAEP Development, chaired by Portugal, also met on the eve of the AEC'08 and, besides the code of conduct it produced for UPAEP, also determined the group's working plan up to the UPAEP Congress to be held in Santiago in August 2009 and the terms of implementation for each of the envisaged actions.
The AEC'08 agenda mainly focused on financial issues (approval of the Union's accounts and budget, status of the member countries' debt, personnel costs and co-operation activities) and the presentation of reports on the various WGs' activities. Besides the aforementioned UPAEP Future Development WG, the Terminal Charges WG presented a summary of its activity over the last year, highlighting the alternative proposals for the UPU concerning a new global terminal charges system (the French one, unanimously rejected, and the one from Canada).
Reporting on its activities, the Postal Regulation WG presented conclusions from the November 2007 Postal Regulation Forum in Madrid and from the Forum that met this week in Montevideo. The Strategic Planning WG stressed that, as set out in its mandate, it is preparing the methodology to produce the Strategy Plan it will present to the 2009 Congress in Chile, while the WGs on Postal Security, Electronic Commerce and Philately presented short summaries of their activity in 2007. Note that before the 2008 AEC session opened, the Intergroup Co-ordination Committee (ICC) met to consider these WG reports and identified matters of common interest in a separate report.
Finally, AEC'08 indicated the next planned activities, specifically: the Regional Conference of Government Authorities, scheduled for 22-23 May 2008 in Santo Domingo, whose main theme topic will be postal sector reform in the Latin American region; the 24th UPU Congress, including activities carried out by UPAEP to fulfil the Bucharest Postal Strategy and the regional development plans (PIDEP); implementation of the next co-operation agreements (with designated operators CTT, Correos de España and La Poste, with the UPU and with other international organisations such as the IIRSA and BID-FOMIN); and lastly the 21st UPAEP Congress to be held in Santiago, Chile, on 19-25 August 2009.
To close the 2008 AEC session, UPAEP gave the two candidates for UPU Postal Operations Council chair - the Briton Murray Buchanan from the Royal Mail and a representative of the Greek candidate from the Hellenic Post - an opportunity to give a short presentation on their respective campaigns.
