Copenhagen hosted last 6-7 May the 13th and last joint meeting of the councils of administration of the European Radiocommunication Office (ERO) and European Telecommunications Office (ETO). The Convention of the European Communications Office (ECO) is to take effect this coming 1 July, replacing the ERO Convention and the ETO Memorandum of Understanding, both dated 1993.
The board members approved the 2010 draft budget and the 2010-2012 financial plan. Contributions for 2010 will remain at their current level, as has occurred since 2007, which in real terms means a reduction of same. In Portugal's case, the ECO Convention’s taking effect means the financial contribution will be slightly lower (-2.5 percent).
In the previous joint Council meeting, agreement was reached that the States' contributions would most likely increase by 3 percent as from 2010, in line with the inflation rate. The 2010-2012 financial plan nevertheless assumes no increase for two more years, with a view to reducing net capital and maintaining the revenue-spending balance.
The director reported results from the extraordinary Copenhagen meeting, held in March 2009 while still under the Maltese presidency, and indicated that the written procedure requesting the vote of the administrations which neither participated nor were represented at that Assembly was still ongoing. However, there will be at least one positive response, which should make viable approval of the Arrangement and completion of the CEPT reorganisation process.
The chair of the ad hoc Audit group (Sweden) presented the group's final report. Following the recommendations of the Mercury Urval auditing firm it spent the last two years analysing a reformulation of the future ECO's methods for work, strategy and communication. Note that the Office may eventually cover the postal area, although it should be up to the European Committee for Postal Regulation (CERP) to decide, if it so desires, to ask the ECO Council to also include postal issues in its working programme.
The legal counsellor from the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen, who took part in the session's first day, presented per the proceedings begun in 2006 that State’s request to reduce its number of contribution units for the future ECO. Turkey wants to have its contribution reduced from ten to one unit and to that end indicated that as soon as the Convention takes effect, it will seek the respective amendment. To be valid, the amendment requires agreement from the remaining 29 Convention signatories. At the next Council, planned for November of this year, that amendment should be formalised.
To mark the start of the new ECO Convention, the Council Chairman indicated that besides sending an email to all CEPT member States, he would also send a letter to the countries that are not ECO members, inviting them to join the Convention. It will also be necessary to change the signage and stationery, and to inform the Office's partners and suppliers and announce the change on the website, among other measures to adopt.
The new ECO website was also presented, though its planned May launch is still pending. The new website will have a technically improved system, with an independent browser in line with the new CEPT communication concept and with new features for meetings and working group support. However, the cost associated to developing in practice not one but four websites (ECO, ECC, CERP and Com-ITU) was apparently underestimated initially; for this reason the entire concept may have to be rethought.
The counsellors were informed of the current status of preparations for the next CEPT Conference, devoted to the subject of ''Common European Practices in Telecommunications'' and which will be held on 21-22 October in Montreux, the city where the organisation was founded precisely 50 years ago.
Following the sudden death last December of the Office’s vice-director, Adriaan Brinkerink, and per proposal from the ERO director, Marc Levendec of France, the new vice-director was appointed. The Council also approved the hiring of a new expert of Russian nationality, selected from among the 27 recruitment applications and who will begin working in June.
The Council was informed that the first meeting of the new tripartite CEPT presidency is scheduled for 2 June, gathering the chairpersons of the ECC, CERP and Com-ITU.
