The Portuguese city of Estoril hosted last 6-10 October the 32nd Assembly of Parties of the International Telecommunication Satellite Organisation (ITSO), organised by ANACOM. The meeting was chaired by Portugal's José Saraiva Mendes, representing the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Communications (MOPTC); the deputy chairman was David Gomes, head of the Board of Directors of the Agência Nacional das Comunicações (ANAC) - the Cape Verdean regulator.
One especially important point was the election by a substantial majority of José Toscano (Portugal) as the new ITSO director general (DG), replacing Ahmed Toumi of Morocco, who has been in office for seven years. The other candidate besides the Portuguese one was Flavien Bachabi of Benin, the current regional vice president of Intelsat. José Toscano, who formerly held the position of director of ITSO external relations, should accumulate that function with that of acting director general. He will take office on 18 July 2009, given that that the current DG's contract is valid until that date.
The agenda also covered issues such as monitoring ITSO activities vis-à-vis the fundamental principles; reviewing and making decisions on reports presented by the director general and concerning compliance with the base principles, and approval of the ITSO budget for the 2008-2010 period. One of the main discussions centred on the need for transparency in the organisation's management and finances. For this reason it was decided that the Advisory Committee (AC) should also be given duties at audit level.
Also debated was the question of compliance by the Notifying Administrations (United Kingdom and United States of America) with the obligations of prior consultation with the director general with respect to co-ordinating orbital positions of the Common Heritage, as per article XII(e)(iv). Although the ITSO director general suggested an arbitration process, the Parties decided to wait six months to try to resolve the existing differences. If the problem is not settled within that period, the possibility of calling an extraordinary Assembly of Parties may then be considered to make a decision on legal resolution of this question by arbitration.
The difficult financial situation of the operator Intelsat and ITSO's future beyond 2013 were also analysed by the Assembly. The latter agreed to seek information from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) about whether it is feasible for the orbital positions classified as Common Heritage and administered by the Notifying Administrations (United States and United Kingdom) on ITSO's behalf to be designated as CH in the ITU register (similar to the situation before the Intelsat reorganisation).
The Assembly of Parties is next scheduled to meet in ordinary session in 2010.
