The 13th meeting of the ECO Council was held on 16-17 December 2015 at the ECO’s offices in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was the first ECO Council meeting chaired by Portugal, which was elected at the previous meeting in May. The delegate from Ireland – the only candidate – was also named vice-chair of the Council, a position which Portugal had occupied since November 2013.
The Council approved the final version of the Office’s budget for 2016 and took note of the 2017-2018 financial plan, documents analysed on a preliminary basis during the spring Council. The contributory unit administrations must pay to the ECO will be maintained next year – this non-increase has occurred since 2003, which in practice means the contribution has diminished by 23 percent since then. Next year’s budget includes the proposal put forward by the director to undertake an external audit of the computer system.
The council members also noted that the net capital that has been financing the ECO’s deficit is still too high and may even grow if the membership increases, namely through admission of Malta and Slovenia, the only European Union (EU) member states that have yet to join the ECO Convention and which should be the next administrations contacted by the director for that purpose.
The Council took note of the Office’s second revision of the 2015 ECO working programme, effective on 31 October, and of the fact that some working groups, namely the working group on Numbering and Networks (WG NaN) of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) had already used all the planned annual support time. Note was taken of the 2016 working programme, which was approved, and the effective support expected to be given by the Office’s seven experts and five administrative staff members to the working groups during a post-World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) cycle was examined and approved. The main change is therefore less Office support for the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG); the resulting days were distributed among support for the ECC, the working group on Frequency Management (WG FM) and the working group on Spectrum Engineering (WG SE).
The council members took note of the draft structure of the upcoming seventh edition of the ECO annual report and agreed to move its preparation forward. The report will thus be drafted during the first quarter of 2016, somewhat earlier than usual, and approved by correspondence between the deputy director and the Council between the end of March and mid-April so it can be published in May 2016.
The chair and vice-chair reported to the Council the decision to carry out an evaluation of the new director’s performance, despite the short time since the director had taken office on 1 April 2015. The entire Office staff was interviewed during the days before the Council meeting and all council members were asked to submit reactions by email. The result was largely satisfactory; the new director has even been able to resolve a human resources management problem that had lasted for some time.
The Council approved the first extension of the contract of the deputy director, Bruno Espinosa, for two years, effective until mid-2018, and also the second and last two-year extension of the contract of the German spectrum management expert, Thomas Weber. The Council members were informed about the hiring of the new international expert, an Irish national, to replace a French expert who leaves the Office at the end of January, and about the admission of a new financial advisor who took office with a permanent contract in mid-October, replacing the previous one who retired.
By proposal of the chair, the Council recommended to the director that the 13 CEPT administrations that have not joined the ECO Convention, involving a total of 22 contributory units, should be contacted again. All will potentially join, paying just one unit, except for Russia (10 units).
The next meeting has been scheduled for 3-4 May 2016 in Dublin, Ireland.
