The second Assembly of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), under U.K. presidency, was held in Cardiff, on the 10th and 11th September. During this Assembly, the transfer into the Portuguese presidency was formalised with the symbolic act of delivery of the flag of this organisation from the hands of the still Chairman, David Hendon (General Director in the Ministry of Trade and Industry - DTI), to the future Chairman of the organization, Engineer José Saraiva Mendes (ANACOM's Board member).
Pursuant to the statutory rules of this organization, which currently gathers administrations from 44 countries in Europe, Portugal shall be in charge of CEPT policies from 1 October 2002 to 30 September 2003. Among other functions, and following the increase of the presidency's responsibilities, which were the result of CEPT restructuring ended in 2001, ANACOM shall be in charge of:
- Negotiating possible agreements to be established with other organizations, namely with the European Commission;
- Representing CEPT near those organizations and jointly discussing more political issues;
- The Presidency of the highest body of this organisation - the CEPT Assembly - which is responsible for discussing and agreeing on the essentially political and strategic issues linked, not only with CEPT, but also to the postal and communications sectors in general (2 Assembly meetings will be held during the mandate);
- Promoting and disclosing information about the organization.
In accordance with the results of this Assembly, Portugal will have in its hands important dossiers, such as:
- CEPT involvement in the preparation of the World Summit on Information Society, which is under development under the auspices of the United Nations;
- The follow-up of political and strategic issues that may be associated with the revision of the 1961 Stockholm Plan (plan for terrestrial radio broadcast, which is still based on analogue technology to be converted into digital technology);
- Making CEPT members more sensitive to the signature of the Tampere Convention, which deals with communications in emergency situations;
- The development, within CEPT, of a coordination policy of applications to positions in international organizations in the communications sector - telecommunications and posts;
- The negotiation of the cooperation agreement between CEPT and the European Commission.
For additional information about CEPT click www.cept.orghttps://www.cept.org/
