The 16th meeting of the ECO Council was held last 3-4 May in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the invitation of the United Kingdom’s administration and chaired by Portugal.
On a proposal from the chair, the ECO’s financial policy was debated at length, along with its investment plan and several options for reducing the net capital, whose excessively high level is nearly three times more than what is needed to cover the sudden closure of the Office, should such a scenario occur. The director along with the chair and vice-chair of the Council sent in late March to the 35 administrations that finance the ECO a document for comments with specific proposals for lowering the net capital and for avoiding the excessive amount of negative interest being paid to Danish banks.
Four scenarios were in question (increasing investment in bonds; organising meetings or seminars for groups of more than 60 people outside ECO installations; analysis of the need to hire additional staff; and temporary reduction of the contribution administrations pay to the ECO). The options that received the most support were the second and third scenarios.
The chair then made a tour-de-table, asking all council members present to comment on this important agenda point.
Most of the council members (except Austria, Belgium, Germany and Portugal) did not support the proposal to test the effect on the Office’s reserve fund of a temporary reduction in contributions (a possible 5 percent or 10 percent reduction on a three-year horizon was discussed), mainly due to the fear that internally it may be difficult in the future to justify and approve budgets envisaging a further contribution increase at the end of that three-year period.
The Council approved the final version of the Office’s budget for 2018 and noted the 2019-2020 financial plan to approve at the next autumn Council. In line with the trend in the last 14 years, the contributory unit the administrations pay to the ECO will be maintained next year. Also approved was the 2016 report on the Office’s accounts and the auditor’s report for that year.
Another issue that generated lengthy debate was analysis of the legal risks of the ECO’s eventual future management of the database for transnational emergency calls to European public safety answering points (PSAPs), otherwise known as 112 Centres. Questions regarding the financing and assignment of human resources from the Office to that initiative garnered the most consensus. Note that the request to transfer the PSAP Directory was made to the working group on Numbering and Networks (WG NaN) in April 2015 by the European Emergency Number Association, a non-governmental organisation. The chair proposed sending a letter to the chair of the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), with copy to the WG NaN chair, requesting further explanation and information about various questions, such as: (i) the national designation format for ‘designated focal point’, a task in which the ECO should not be involved; (ii) the number of contracts that can eventually be implemented between the ECO and the PSAP operators and
respective terms of reference; (iii) management of requests for explicit consent under the new European legislation on personal data protection that takes force in 2018; and (iv) technical implementation of different numbering resources in the database’s operation.
The Council members took note of the (almost final) draft of the eighth and next edition of the ECO annual report, which would be closed the following week. Once again, the German administration offered to print 150 paper copies. The final results of the ECO’s 2016 working programme were also noted and analysis made of the differences in effective support provided by the Office’s experts and administrative personnel versus what was planned. Also, the draft working programme for 2017 was updated and a preliminary analysis of the 2018 working programme discussed.
The ECO deputy director reported various ongoing projects to the Council, namely the streamlined second phase of the Office’s new web portal (CEPT-ECO-ECC-ComITU-CERP website), launched on 15 December 2016; developments in the area of the Spectrum Engineering Advanced Monte Carlo Analysis Tool, with its new version launched on 31 March 2017; introduction of the new module of equipment for programme making and special events in the ECO frequency information system and latest preparations with a view to making the documentation database available by the beginning of July; and the implementation of measures resulting from the audit of the Office’s computer system in order to improve its policy for security of information technologies.
The deputy director informed the Council about the process for hiring the new frequency management expert and about the selection of Doriana Guiducci of Italy, chosen from among 22 candidates, who will assume the position in mid-July, replacing the expert Stellla Lyubchenko (Russia), who leaves the Office at the end of May. Their portfolios will be similar. Inherently, and per its status as chair of the ECO Council, Portugal took part in that hiring panel, also comprised by the vice-chair of the ECO Council, the Office’s director and the chair of WG FM.
The Council was also informed that on 20 March a new administrative assistant, Anne-Dorthe Hjelm Christensen, had been hired with a permanent contract, to replace administrative staff member Bente Pedersen. The Office’s most long-staying employee retired on 15 April 2017.
The next meeting of the ECO Council has been scheduled for 30.11-01.12 2017 at the ECO’s offices in Copenhagen.
