The seventh meeting of the CEPT WG ITU project team (PT) responsible for preparing the upcoming 2006 Plenipotentiary Conference (PP) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was held on 9-11 May in Sofia, Bulgaria.
After a first set of 10 European common proposals (ECPs), prepared by this PT and approved by WG ITU (the proposals have also been sent to the ITU), and a second package with three additional ECPs, the group finalised at this meeting new common proposals for approval by WG ITU next June.
The finalised ECP proposals concern the following issues:
? Ratification of the Tampere Convention, with the aim of speeding up this convention's ratification process;
? Spam and network security (revision of Resolution 130 of PP-02);
? The switch to appointing instead of electing the Office Directors. Elections would hence be limited to the positions of Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General (a proposal on which Portugal has been working, along with the United Kingdom);
? Maximum number of terms in elected positions - as with the other ECPs related to this subject (namely the ECP on the Co-ordination Committee and the ECP on the switch from elected to appointed directors), the Portuguese administration was in charge of preparing this proposal;
? Contributions from the sector members and associate members to cover Union spending (under Resolution 110).
Besides the final version ECP proposals, to be debated and/or approved by WG ITU, the PT examined a number of other issues, some of which may give rise to new ECPs:
? Management of internet resources, which will continue to be examined by PT PP-06 at its next meeting;
? Cancellation of unpaid invoices concerning cost recovery from satellite system notifications (related to Resolution 88). This issue remains very controversial and will have to be reconsidered at the next PT meeting, based on a new contribution being prepared by France. It will probably also be a subject of debate at the next WG ITU meeting;
? Decision to produce an ECP similar to the one presented at PP-02 on the 3000 GHz limit, i.e., to suggest that no changes be made to the Convention and Constitution meant to change same, as the Arab group has proposed;
? Decision in principle to produce an ECP on making the budget biennial instead of annual, and to also include the overall financial framework of the Union. In previous meetings this proposal had sharply divided opinions, though at this one it received more support - an ECP proposal on same may very likely be approved at the next PT meeting;
? Given the United Kingdom's proposal on new (and substantially different) work methods for the RRB (Radio Regulations Board), a decision was made not to go ahead with very bold proposals. As long as they are more modest the issue may be reconsidered at the next PT meeting;
? Decision to withdraw the idea for an eventual ECP on the possibility of interrupting the terms of those holding elected positions, as that question is already covered in the staff regulations;
? Decision to withdraw the ECP proposal on free-of-charge online access to ITU recommendations, as same will not be necessary in the current context, given the 2006 Council Decision on this subject;
? Decision in principle to withdraw the idea of producing an ECP on the establishment of a reorganisation fund. The United Kingdom was meant to prepare a new text on this proposal. However, the submitted version was practically the same as the previous one, and thus raised similar comments;
? Although no major advance was recorded at this meeting, Resolution 91 of PP-98 on the cost recovery principle will be kept on the group's agenda and may also give rise to an ECP. This issue should be discussed at the next WG ITU meeting in Vilnius.
The participants in the meting updated the brief and position paper, documents which will be used to ''guide'' the CEPT countries during PP-06. Progress was also made on the work of identifying the PP Decisions, Resolutions and Recommendations that should be kept, revised or withdrawn. This activity will continue at the next PT meeting.
Note that this meeting was once again organised a bit differently from normal, as on one of the days the work was conducted in editing groups, which revised a number of the documents debated on the first day with a view to finalising some common proposals and/or revising the base documents of this preparatory work, namely the brief and position paper (for this reason the meeting was one day longer than normal). Portugal chaired one of these groups, which was charged with revising the proposed ECP on limiting the terms of elected positions. The other proposal Portugal took to this meeting, on the switch from elected to appointed positions, was much debated but required no editing work as it was accepted in the same version as it was submitted.
As a number of issues remain open, it was agreed that, besides the September PT meeting (18-20 in Berlin), an extraordinary meeting would also be held on 19-21 July. A decision was also made to ask WG ITU to delegate to the PT the responsibility for approving the ECPs eventually produced (French proposal) at both meetings.
