Reykjavik (Iceland) hosted the 29-31 March sixth meeting of PT PP06, the CEPT project team in charge of preparing for the next Plenipotentiary Conference (PP) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to be held in 2006.
A first set of ten European common proposals (ECPs) had already been prepared by this project team and approved by WG ITU, the working group it reports to (note that those common proposals have already been sent to the ITU). At this meeting a set of proposed ECPs on the following topics were finalised: future of the ITU, elimination of the Co-ordination Committee and reduction of the number of telecoms.
Besides the finalised ECP proposals which will be forwarded for discussion and/or approval by WG ITU, work (ECP proposals and decisions) continued on the following subjects:
- Management of internet resources, a proposal which will continue to be examined by PT PP-06 at its next meeting;
- Withdrawal of the eventual common proposal on interruption of the terms of officials in ITU elected positions, which will be confirmed at the project team?s next meeting;
- Appointment of the office directors instead of the current election process, with elections becoming limited to the positions of secretary general and vice secretary general; this proposal will pass to WG ITU for discussion with the expectation that it will return to the PT for improvement and consolidation;
- Contributions of the sector members and associated members to settle the Union?s spending (revision of Resolution 110), proposal to finalise at the next meeting of PT PP06;
- Cancellation of unpaid invoices concerning cost recovery for satellite system notifications (associated to Resolution 88); this question continues to be very controversial and will have to be examined again, based on a new contribution being prepared by France;
- Decision to produce an autonomous ECP concerning the maximum number of mandates in elected positions; the preparation of this proposal, as with the other ECPs involving this topic (namely the ECP on the Co-ordination Committee and the ECP on the switch to appointed instead of elected directors) will also be the responsibility of the Portuguese administration and will be debated at the next meeting;
- To produce an ECP on free of charge access to ITU Recommendations; the question is still not consensual and will be subject to further debate, based on a proposal being prepared by the Finnish administration;
- To establish a reorganisation fund; this situation is similar to the previous one, i.e., it is not consensual and will have be debated again - in this case the preparation of a new text is the responsibility of the administration from the United Kingdom;
- Decision, in principle, to produce an ECP on changing the budget from biannual to annual, and on a broad financial overview of the Union; as there was no consensus on this matter, the Swiss administration was charged with preparing a new text;
- Given a proposal from the United Kingdom that proposes new (and substantially different) working methods for the Radio Regulations Board (RRB), it was decided not to go ahead with any bolder proposal to that end; however, if more moderate, then the question may be examined again at the next meeting;
- A decision was made to abandon the idea of an eventual ECP that revises the way of sharing the inherent costs of holding Regional Conferences, i.e., the current distribution will be maintained, which is based on the number of contribution units that each administration contributes to the Union?s general budget;
The brief and position paper were also revised. These documents will serve as the ?guide? for the CEPT countries during PP-06. Work progressed as well on identifying the Decisions, Resolutions and Recommendations from PP-02 that should be kept, revised or withdrawn - an activity that will continue at the project team?s next meeting.
Note that this meeting was organised in a way slightly different from usual, with work on one of the days being conducted in editing groups that reviewed various documents debated on the first day, with a view to finalising some proposals, and also the base documents of this preparatory work - namely the brief and position paper (for which reason the meeting lasted one day longer than usual).
Portugal chaired one of these groups, which was charged with revising the proposed ECP on elimination of the co-ordination committee and achieving consensus on production of an eventual ECP on reducing the number of elected positions, with a view to directors being appointed instead of elected.
The next meeting will be held on 9-11 May in Sofia, Bulgaria.
