The fifth meeting of the Council working group on a Stable Constitution of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was held last 8-12 April in Geneva, attended by about 80 participants from 43 member states, among them Portugal.
The group focused on revising the text of the ITU constitution as well as the General Rules and Provisions (a new document including text from the current ITU Convention and provisions from the Constitution deemed more operational, which should therefore not be included in a treaty requiring ratification).
Besides this text revision work the group also discussed the following:
- Will the final text agreed on by the group and later adopted by the Plenipotentiary Conference be a new constitution or a revision of the current constitution?;
- So as not to require ratification, should it be clear in the text that the General Rules and Provisions bind the member states?;
- What is the documents' hierarchy? There are now the Constitution, General Rules and Provisions, Administrative Regulations, Rules of Conferences, Assemblies and Meetings…;
- Possibility of grouping the General Rules and Provisions and the Rules of Conferences, Assemblies and Meetings;
- Should the financial provisions remain in the Constitution to guarantee its stability or in the General Rules and Provisions to ensure the necessary flexibility? Several European countries, among them Portugal, as well as the United States of America, Japan and Canada, submitted a declaration defending the first option;
- Should the definitions remain in the Constitution, given their importance for interpreting the articles, or should they be included in the General Rules and Provisions, as they are continually updated?.
The group did not reach agreement on any of the above-mentioned issues. They will therefore be considered at the next ITU Council session (11-21 June 2013 in Geneva) for a decision.
