CEPT Looks Forward With New Structure

 

As it reaches its 50th anniversary the European organisation of telecommunications and posts regulators, the CEPT, has put in place a new, streamlined management structure.  This change was agreed in March 2009 by an Extraordinary Assembly held in Copenhagen, and is aimed at strengthening the organisation by focusing its leadership on the main areas of CEPT’s work in cooperation and harmonisation at the European level.  These areas are:

 

• telecommunications (with a strong emphasis on spectrum management);
• postal services regulation;
• engagement by CEPT members with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

A separate Presidency, changing every year, is now replaced by a Co-presidency of Chairmen of the three committees responsible for each of the areas of work. These Chairmen are separately elected under the relevant Committee’s procedures.  The Chairmanships are of finite duration.  This Co-Presidency will be assisted by the European Communications Office (ECO) acting as a Secretariat.

 

The new structure establishes a leadership that corresponds directly to the three substantially autonomous areas of activity around which the CEPT’s reputation, influence and responsibility is clustered, and where its stakeholder interests lie.  The creation of a joint Presidency should ensure that areas of common interest receive due attention.

 

The CEPT Assembly remains as the supreme body of the organisation, with the expectation of a flexible approach to convening its meetings when necessary.

 

This reorganisation is part of a process of review and consultation which has also seen the adoption of resolutions on orientation and priorities on:

 

• Maintaining and strengthening technical expertise;
• Maintaining coordination in wider international fora (ITU and UPU);
• Improving external communications;
• Taking a more strategic, top-down approach;
• Ensuring complementarity and constructive engagement with EU activities in the same area of interest;
• Giving a greater emphasis to economic considerations in spectrum management;
• Improving arrangements for external participation in CEPT work.

 

The three Committees are each currently developing more detailed plans appropriate to their working context, to take these principles forward and put them into practice.

 

New Website

 

Later this year CEPT will be launching its brand new website at www.cept.org. This will become the portal to activity of the ECC and Com-ITU, which is currently found on the ECO’s website (www.ero.dk), as well as to the activity of CERP (whose present website is at www.cept-cerp.org. The CEPT website will therefore be a place to access up to date information, and interact with the numerous activities within the CEPT on posts and telecommunications. This will include all the existing services relating to spectrum use (such as the frequency information database "EFIS"), key deliverables such as ECC Decisions, information on the outcomes of Working Groups meetings, and open access to the great majority of CEPT working documents.

 

Contacts:
Mark Thomas, Director ECO	+45 33 89 63 01	thomas@ero.dk
Presidency e-mail:		ceptpresidency@ero.dk
Susanne Have, ECO	+45 33 89 63 17
Mette J. Konner, ECO	+45 33 89 63 05

 

 

Additional Information

• The Chairs of the three Committees are as follows:
  
  
  
  • The Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), Mr Thomas Ewers
  • The European Committee for Postal Regulation (CERP), Mr Ulrich Dammann
  • The Committee for ITU Policy (Com-ITU), Mr Anders Jönsson
    
  
  
• The CEPT’s strategic review was initiated by the Netherlands Presidency of 2007 and undertaken by a Task Force led by the Maltese Presidency since autumn 2007. The Task Force undertook consultations within the CEPT membership and with external stakeholders to bring forward a series of recommendations about the CEPT’s orientation and priorities and on management structure (i.e. the new model of presidency and the process for convening Assemblies). The decision making process has been completed by the Extraordinary Assembly in Copenhagen in March 2009.
  
  
  
• The ECO was known until 1st July 2009 as the ’European Radiocommunications Office’ (ERO).