Portugal is running for a third consecutive term in the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), deputy organ of the quadrennial conferences of this specialized United Nations agency, Geneva-based and dating back to 1865 this is the oldest inter-governamental organization and biggest worldwide telecommunications organization.
The election of the Council members, currently 46, takes place every four years, at the Plenipotentiary Conferences, the next one - PP02- taking place at Marrakech, Morocco, from the 23rd September to the 18th October.
ITU aims at assuring international cooperation in telecommunication regulatory, standardization and development aspects, including spectrum and satellite orbits management. ITU is presently composed of 189 Member-States and over 600 Sector Members with interest in telecommunication, namely manufacturers and operators.
Portugal is currently, and since 1994, member of the ITU Council, an organ which has the prime task of assuring, between Plenipotentiary Conferences (supreme ITU organ), that the activities, policies and strategies of ITU come round to what has been defined by the Conference, adding this to the responsibility of guaranteeing the good functioning of the ITU, at the operational, financial and administrative levels.
Representing Portugal, ANACOM is committed to the ITU reform, defending the adaptation to the sector's new reality and assessing its activities and priorities to the necessities of all members as well as its efficient management, holding as principle the maintaining of its inter-governamental status. A commitment reinforced by the general support of ITU activities, not only through the referred participation in its organs and works, but also through specific financial contributions seeking an enlarged participation of ITU members, especially the least developed, in particularly important events.
This active and interested Portuguese involvement is also patent in the regional telecommunication organizations of which it is a member, namely the European Union and especially in the CEPT - European Conference of Post and Telecommunication Administrations, to which Portugal will preside from coming October.
ANACOM, together with other national entities, is developing all efforts in promoting the re-election of Portugal for this position in the decision-centre of the telecommunication world.
