The French city of Nice hosted last 21-22 November the 48th General Assembly of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), where Portugal was represented at two levels, i.e., by the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM) and by Portugal Telecom.
The meeting included the elections for the presidency and vice-presidency of the ETSI GA, whose mandates run from November 2006 to November 2008. John Phillips of Nortel Networks (Europe) was elected to the position of president, while Nicola Colecchia of ANUIT and Armin Toepfer of Vodafone D2 GmbH were chosen as vice-presidents.
The 2007 budget, which maintains the value of the contribution unit, was approved, and the report from the Finance Committee presented.
The GA also approved the ETSI Strategy for 2007, produced by the Council in 2006, highlighting the inclusion of new definitions of the Institute's vision and mission, maintenance of the 2006 strategic areas and identification of five strategic topics vis-à-vis the market. Likewise approved was the Strategy Plan of the ETSI Secretariat for 2007, which is in line with the Institute's strategy for the same year, with a view to pursuing the set goals.
Also presented was the report from the ETSI Council, chaired by Portugal (Francisco da Silva of Portugal Telecom), covering the activities undertaken by the Council since the last GA, as well as the goals set for the coming year. Lastly, a decision was made to set up an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Committee, which the current GA president, Karsten Meinhold, was appointed to head.
Plans call for the next general assemblies to be held on 28-29 March and 27-28 November 2007.
