Geneva hosted last 12-21 November a meeting of the ITU Council, a body comprising the 46 members in charge of running the organisation between Plenipotentiary Conferences (PPs).
As with the practice begun at the last Council meeting (2007 session), the Council's first two days were reserved for the High Level Segment (HLS) item, this year dedicated to the topics of ''ICTs and Climate Changes'' and ''Cyber-Security''. Note that 26 ministers and two heads of state attended this year, compared to only eight ministers in 2007.
The following issues, either considered and/or decided upon, stood out at this Council session:
- The progress in implementing the ITU strategy plan for 2008-2011 was endorsed;
- The 2009-2012 operational plans of the secretary general and the sectors were approved - here note announcement of the financial contribution granted by Saudi Arabia to the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT) programmes known as ''Bridging the Standardisation Gap'' and ''Connect Africa'' and envisaged in the ITU-D operational plan;
- The results of WTSA-08 were considered. Despite the successful results, it was also noted that 28 administrations placed a reservation on a recommendation approved there. This non-consensual approval ended up causing a fragmentation of the Union with respect to the approved material, in this case Recommendation D.156 of the Telecommunications Standardisation Sector (ITU-T), concerning network externalities;
- A decision was made to increase to 47 the number of Council members, with the new place to be assigned to region A - Americas;
- A decision was made to study how often the regional and world Telecom meetings should be held, a study which follows in practice the proposal Europe put forward at the 2006 PP to increase the regularity of the world Telecoms in detriment to the regional fairs;
- A decision was made to begin a six-month trial period during which, as with ITU-T recommendations, Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) recommendations and the Union's basic texts, except the Radio Regulation, will be posted online free of charge; the measure’s financial impact will be gauged during this period;
- Regarding the use of languages in the Union, despite financial limitations more efficient resource management was urged, in order to achieve equal treatment for the six official languages as soon as possible;
- Regarding the ITU's role in building trust and security in the use of information and communication technologies, the results from the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) were noted; although this group's report was not consensual, the work on the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) will now continue at working group (WG) level, with a view to thorough analysis of the report;
- The creation of a WG WSIS subgroup was approved to discuss policy questions involving the internet, as proposed by the last World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly (WTSA-08);
- Regarding human resources management, a number of decisions were made, namely to update the salaries of elected positions to follow United Nations tables; the recent financial crisis’s impact on pensions was also noted and the ITU's strategy for managing careers was endorsed, including training, rotations and progression;
- Regarding the improved functioning of the Union, an issue that Portugal oversaw on Europe’s behalf during the talks at PP-06, a decision was made to launch a consultation of all members; the result of that consultation will be used in the secretary general’s report on this subject to the next Council and thereafter to PP-10;
- The external auditor's report on the ITU's accounts for the 2006-2007 period was approved, along with the operational financial report for the 2006-2007 biennial period; it was particularly noted that all the sectors as well as the secretary general indicated that spending was below budget;
- The external auditor's report on the Telecom fair accounts was approved for the cases of Telecom World 2006, Telecom Americas 2007 and Telecom Europe 2007, as well as the ITU's accounting report concerning those same events;
- Regarding World Telecommunications and Information Society Day, a decision was made that the theme topic of the 2009 celebrations would be ''Protecting Children in Cyber-Space'';
- The dates and agendas of the ITU's significant events were debated, namely the 2009 Council, scheduled for 20-30 October 2009, the 2011 Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-11) and the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-11), respectively planned for 17-21 October and 24 October to 18 November 2011; the possibility of scheduling for the dates 26-30 September and 3-28 October 2011 will nevertheless be evaluated so as not to conflict with Ramadan, which could lead to a change in venue - as it stands, the WRC is to be held in Geneva. The next World Telecommunications Development Conference (WTDC) was also scheduled, for March 2010.
As the Union's budget is biennial, this session did not have to approve a budget for the period, as the 2008-2009 budget had been approved at the 2007 session. The next Council session, planned for 20-30 October 2009 in Geneva, will thus be responsible for approving the ITU's budget for 2010-2011.
