Paris hosted last 2 April a meeting of the UPU project team (PT) of the CERP working group (WG) on Political Issues. The agenda focused on co-ordinating the European countries' positions with respect to the proposals to be submitted to the 24th Universal Postal Union (UPU) Congress, to be held from 23 July to 12 August in Geneva (substituting Nairobi). To that end, the proposals on regulation issues (including those drawn up by PostEurop), on UPU reform and on UPU acts were the dealt with most thoroughly. Besides the proposals from the UPU International Bureau, CERP also examined three proposals authored by third countries, one from Pakistan, one from Jordan and the other from Japan.
Regarding the proposal to change the criteria for composition of the Council of Administration and also regarding the new proposed version for the Agreement on Postal Services and Payments, it was concluded that all the Europeans were not in agreement, at least in this phase.
Given that this meeting only covered the first two submissions of proposals to the Congress, with at least two more expected, and given that analysis of the second submission's proposals still must be completed, PT UPU agreed on the need to schedule an extra meeting, which will not be the last before the Congress (meanwhile changed from 3 July to 24 July 2008). This new meeting will be held in Lisbon this coming 28 May, immediately after the CERP plenary meeting scheduled for 14-16 May in the Latvian capital Riga.
