The 18th meeting of the ECO Council was held in Copenhagen last 3-4 May, chaired by Portugal, which was re-elected to a second three-year term as chair.
This session dealt with issues of financial nature that are usually on the agenda of the Spring Council, namely:
- approval of the contributory unit to pay in 2019;
- approval of the Office's accounts for 2017 as well as the respective audit report;
- the 2020-2021 financial plan annotated and commented.
Based on a proposal from Sweden, the Council debated the possibility of changing auditor and on a regular five-year basis. The pros and cons were examined and it decided not to do so, nor even to opt for a partner change. The ECO's financial regulations will nevertheless be amended to include the option of studying that possible change, in the event it becomes appropriate or necessary, every five years.
The ECO's working programmes for 2017 and 2018 were also revised and the preliminary results until 31 March noted. Regarding the working programme for 2018, the differences in effective support provided by the Office's administrative personnel and experts were analysed versus what was envisaged. The draft 2019 working programme was also discussed.
The Office presented the current status of various ongoing projects such as the Office's web portal (CEPT-ECO-ECC-Com-ITU-CERP website); the Spectrum Engineering Advanced Monte Carlo Analysis Tool (SEAMCAT); the ECO frequency information system (EFIS); the new document database; the application programming interface (API); the database of the ECC working programme; the 700 MHz information repository; and the implementation in the computer system and others of the entry into force last 25 May of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The Council members took note of the ninth and last edition of the ECO annual report, whose digital version had just been published. The statute of the ECO Convention from the “substantial” amendment of 23 November 2011 was noted, to accommodate Turkey's request to reduce its contributory unit. No new signatures or ratifications have been verified since the last Council session.
Regarding human resources management, the final two-year extension until 11 November 2020 of the contract of the numbering and networks expert, Freddie McBride, was approved by recommendation of the ECO director (Per Christensen of Denmark). Agreement was reached on the process of recruiting the new frequency management expert who will replace Thomas Weber, and on the calendar for publicity and interviews, including the formation of a recruitment panel, in which Portugal will participate ex officio.
The revision of the Office's internal rules (staff rules and internal instructions) and of the work done by specialised consultants was debated at length. At the request of various administrations, the Council members will have two additional weeks to send in written comments, which will be analysed again by the human resources experts and subject to approval of the Autumn Council.
The next meeting of the ECO Council has been scheduled for 28-29 November.
