Paris hosted last 29-30 November the 26th meeting of the EUTELSAT IGO Advisory Committee (AC), chaired by Spain (Laura Perez Martos). It was attended by representatives of the other states on the committee, i.e., France, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland. Italy (Franco Malerba) was also represented at the gathering as an observer and as president of the Assembly of Parties.
The EUTELSAT IGO executive secretary (ES), Christian Roisse, informed the Parties about activities under way since the last AC meeting in March, especially regarding supervision of the company Eutelsat S.A. During the period in question, the ES, as censeur, attended six meetings of the Eutelsat Communications management and also six meetings of the Eutelsat S.A. management.
Despite losing a satellite in October during the launch from Kouru in French Guiana, the company continues to present excellent financial results and conditions enabling it to keep complying with the Base Principles. Eutelsat Communications deputy CEO Jean-Paul Brillaud reported that in the last financial year the company reached the mark of 1 billion euros in revenues for the first time, and that in the first quarter of financial year 2010-2011 it had achieved revenues on the order of 285 million euros. The company’s debt stands at 1.6 billion euros.
The ES reported that no interference had been recorded in Eutelsat SA radio and television transmissions in Iranian territory since June. The situation particularly affected broadcasting of the television channels BBC Persian Television, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Deutsche Welle in the first half of the year. The draft CEPT resolution on deliberate interference was debated during the Plenipotentiary Conference (PP) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); the issue should be taken up again at the next World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12). A meeting will soon be held by France, Iran and the ITU to discuss the matter.
The Committee also examined the organisation’s budget for the period between July 2010 and June 2011, as well as budget execution from the previous year, noting that both complied with the general lines approved at the May 2009 Assembly of Parties (AP).
The next meeting of the EUTELSAT IGO AC, the last before the May 2011 Assembly of Parties, is scheduled for 14-15 March. The organisation’s tenth anniversary will be celebrated at the next AP’s opening ceremony.
