OXFORD, United Kingdom-At the forthcoming International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-organized World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03), the European Union has called on European member states attending to ensure that key EU policies and initiatives are actively supported.
The EU has warned member states that, as in previous WRC conferences, the implementation of a large number of EU policies increasingly depends on decisions taken in this forum. “It is important that the results of this conference supported EU policies in key areas such as 3G, radio LANs and Galileo (the planned European satellite radio-navigation system),” said Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for enterprise and information society.
According to the Commissioner, strengthening the EU position at the WRC-03 greatly benefited from the preparation of technical European positions by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) organization, but also required coordination of policies at an EU level before and during the conference. In an effort to achieve this, the commission said it is prepared to offer “clear political guidance on EU objectives to reach during the negotiations.” Member states are also “requested” to adapt their positions coherently throughout the conference, while taking into account policy objectives identified by the commission.
