The two councils of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the Council of Administration (CA) and the Postal Operations Council (POC), met in joint session last 27 October to 14 November in the Swiss capital, Berne. It was the first such gathering since the constituent session held during the Union's 24th Congress in August.
As this was the first working session of the new 2009-2012 cycle for both the CA and the POC, the top issues concerned administration and functional reorganisation. The CA and POC plenary sessions thus approved the internal regulations for each council and the respective frameworks for decision levels below the committees (the number and mission of each committee had already been approved at the constituent meetings during the Congress), i.e., working groups and other dependent bodies. Besides the proposed organisation charts, the creation of a new working group on Human Resources was approved, to report to the CA's Finance Committee (C3), in the wake of the USA's proposal to that end, which was based on the conclusions and recommendations of the Common Inspection Body, the UPU internal auditor and the International Bureau itself on the issue.
The two council’s committees also met during this session with a view to organising their structure and defining proper management terms and activity plans for the cycle now beginning. The POC approved the proposals to amend the UPU Regulations which, as with the Acts of Union, the Congress endorsed for this first working session. The CA also approved the Plan and Budget for 2009/2010, as presented by the International Bureau to CA C3.
The schedule of meetings for the coming two-year period was also approved: the councils' next annual sessions will be held on 18 March-3 April 2009 (POC) and 26 October-13 November 2009 (CA).
