The 12th meeting of the ECO Council was held last 6-7 May in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, chaired by Norway (Geir Sundal). ECO director Per Christensen of Denmark, who took office on 1 April, participated for the first time in his new status. It was also the last meeting chaired by Norway, given that Portugal was elected chair of the Council. The position of vice-chair, which Portugal held since November 2013, thus became vacant; the call for respective candidates should soon be issued.
The Council approved the preliminary version of the Office's budget for 2016 and was informed of the 2017-2018 Financial Plan. Those documents will be subject to final approval at the October Council. Noteworthy is that the contribution unit (c.u.) administrations pay to the ECO will be the same next year, maintaining the no-increase trend in place since 2003, which corresponds in practice to a decrease of 23.2 percent since that time. The council members also noted that the net capital which has been financing that deficit is still too high and may even grow. This is because a slight increase in contributions paid by administrations is foreseen due to the recent memberships of the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
Also approved, with origin in the auditor, were the Office’s 2014 annual report and accounts, and the audit of the ECO’s 2014 accounts conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in accordance with international accounting procedures.
The Council members took note of the Office’s first internal revision of the ECO’s 2015 working programme, effective on 31 March, and of the fact that some working groups, namely project teams NaN PT NP, PT FM52 and PT SE24, had already used more than 40 percent of the envisaged annual support. The 2016 working programme, presented in a new format as requested, was also examined and should be definitively approved at the next December Council. The time allocated to each 2014 working programme activity was also analysed, along with the effective support provided by seven experts and five Office administrative staff to the working groups. It must be stressed that the office move had a major impact on the original plans.
The final version of the 2014 ECO Report was approved and will be published in June. It is the sixth annual activities report published by the Office in the wake of the recommendation from the ad hoc Council Audit group to publicise and enhance visibility of the ECO’s activity. As usual, the German administration offered to print the report’s first 150 copies on paper.
The Council endorsed the replacement of the expert Jean-Philippe Kermoal, who leaves the Office at the end of January 2016. The incoming expert will inherit most of the portfolio of the outgoing French expert, except for SEAMCAT, which will be the responsibility of Spanish expert José Carrascosa. Plans call for the new expert to be interviewed in September 2015 and to begin work on 1 January 2016.
The selection panel should comprise the ECO director, the chair of the Spectrum Engineering working group (WG SE), the Council chair and another council member, who is usually the Council vice-chair. Given that the latter has yet to be elected, Ireland volunteered to join the panel.
According to information provided by the director, because Slovenia and Malta are members of the European Union (EU) they will be the next states to be contacted with a view to joining the ECO Convention.
The next meeting was scheduled for 16-17 December 2015 in Copenhagen.
