ECO in brief
The ECO is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the permanent office supporting the CEPT, its Presidency and its three Committees: the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC), the Committee for ITU Policy (Com-ITU) and the Committee for Postal Regulation (CERP). CEPT brings together the postal and telecommunications regulatory authorities of 46 European countries.
The ECO Annual Reports can be downloaded here. This gives a comprehensive contemporary overview of our actual activities and achievement.
You can read a little more about what our staff does here.
The Office is governed by the ECO Council, consisting of representatives of the Contracting Parties to the ECO Convention, which is the instrument establishing the ECO and defining its constitution and purpose. For more details about the ECO Council, see Council page.
Currently, ECO has 12 staff members, drawn from different CEPT countries.
The ECO Convention expresses the primary functions of the ECO, often referred to as 'The Office', as follows:
- to provide a centre of expertise which shall act as a focal point, identifying problem areas and new possibilities in the postal and electronic communications field and to advise the CEPT Presidency and the Committees accordingly;
- to draft long-term plans for future use of scarce resources utilised by electronic communications on a European level;
- to liaise with the national authorities, as appropriate;
- to support and work together with national frequency management authorities;
- to conduct consultations on specific topics or parts of the frequency spectrum;
- to publish CEPT deliverables (Decisions and Recommendations) and keep a record of their implementation;
- to be the custodian of the CEPT archives and to disseminate CEPT information as appropriate
Some history:
- In 1991, a ”Host Agreement” was signed with the Danish Government, and the European Radiocommunications Office, ERO, was established on the basis of an MoU with 19 signatories
- In June 1993, the ERO Convention was agreed by the parties to the MoU
- In January 1994, the European Telecommunications Office, ETO, was established on the basis of an MoU
- In March 1996, the ERO Convention entered into force
- On 1 January 2001 the ERO and the ETO merged
- On 1 July 2009, the merger was formally recognised by a change of name to ECO, European Communications Office
- On 8 May 2012 Latvia joined, and on 21 November 2013 Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the ECO Convention.
- On 1 March 2013 the ECO Convention of 9th April 2002 entered into force
- On 3 December 2014 Czech Republic joined the ECO Convention.
- On 1 February 2015 Lithuania joined the ECO Convention.
- On 21 November 2018 Malta joined, bringing to 36 the number of countries contributing to the financing of ECO.
Updated: 17 November 2023, 11:58
