The 42nd plenary meeting of the European Committee for Postal Regulation (CERP) was held last 5-7 May in the Polish city of Krakow.
Presentation of activity reports from the CERP project teams (PTs) and working groups (WGs) revealed little activity, due to current uncertainty over CERP’s future, not only because the process of evaluating the structure approved at the October 2008 Athens plenary meeting is under way, but also due to the recent announcement by the European Commission (EC) concerning creation of the European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP). The presentation of results from the questionnaire on CERP’s reorganisation was otherwise not conclusive. It only allowed definition of the basic guiding principles for CERP’s future position regarding these developments in the European panorama. Creation of the ERGP was the subject of the EC representative’s speech, and ended up being the main topic of discussion during one of the plenary meeting’s forums on “The Future of CERP”.
The representative from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) presented main results of the annual session of the UPU Postal Operations Council (POC), detailing progress of the group’s work on reforming the Union.
Portugal was especially active at this plenary meeting, particularly in the discussions on CERP reform. It also headed a drafting group set up to submit a proposal regarding the ‘.post’ project to the UPU Council of Administration (CA) at the November 2010 annual session.
Contrary to what was envisaged at the previous plenary meeting, which considered that the CERP presidency might have to hold the plenary meeting in Bonn, in the simple format, due to a lack of invitations, Turkey invited CERP to hold the 43rd plenary meeting this coming 24-26 November in Istanbul.
