The 34th session (extraordinary) of the Assembly of Parties (AP) of the European Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (EUTELSAT) was held on 11 May in Paris.
The meeting was chaired by Mr Piffaretti of Switzerland, with the following decisions worthy of note:
- Bearing in mind the reports from the Executive Secretary and the Advisory Committee, the Assembly was informed of the stock market launch of ''Eutelsat Communications'' on 2 December 2005, recording the occurrence of same;
- Based on the aforementioned documents and after listening to the oral presentations on same, the Assembly was informed of the work and activities undertaken by the Advisory Committee and by the Executive Secretary of EUTELSAT IGO (inter-governmental organisation), specifically the latter's participation in the Board of Directors of ''Eutelsat Communications'' as ''Censeur''. This representation is extremely important with regard to supervision of compliance with the Base Principles, as well as access to all kinds of information needed to assure that supervision;
- The proposed modification of the Agreement that regulates relations between EUTELSAT IGO and the company Eutelsat SA was approved. This modification (Amendment 3) is a result of the stock market launch of EUTELSAT Communications and is under the terms agreed to in the Letter Agreement dated 2 September 2005. the adoption of this modification to the said Arrangement will have retroactive effects as from 2 December 2005 (date of the stock market launch);
- A resolution on the subject of pending invoices from satellite network notifications made by EUTELSAT for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was approved; in this resolution, the Assembly urges the member States to take the necessary steps to resolve this problem, working together to present a co-ordinated position on the issue at the upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference to be held in Turkey on 6-24 November 2006. Each member State was also asked to inform their respective administrative bodies and the CEPT groups of this decision.
The next AP ordinary session has been scheduled for 23-24 May 2007.
