Summary

  • Europe’s CEPT contribution 75 addendum 47 asks PP-26 to suppress Resolution 158 as duplicative of existing ITU financial mandates.
  • Arab States contribution 91 addendum 21 would keep the resolution, name revenue-generating activities and require reports on expected receipts, costs and risks.

The same ITU rule has two appointments at November’s Plenipotentiary Conference. Europe has booked it a trip to the shredder; Arab States have brought a red pen. In CEPT addendum 47, the European member states propose suppressing Resolution 158, calling it duplicative and obsolete. Arab States addendum 21 proposes revising that very resolution to give the Secretary-General a more explicit revenue brief. Both appear in the official European and Arab contribution records. Neither is a conference decision.

The 2014 text of Resolution 158 already tells the Secretary-General to study new revenue measures and report through the Council Working Group on Financial and Human Resources. It asks the Council to look at financial stability, member pricing and fee exemptions. Europe argues that the work has since acquired other legal homes: Decision 5 for resource mobilization, Resolution 91 for cost recovery and Resolution 209 for smaller-company participation. On its reading, keeping the old resolution adds another citation rather than another power.

Arab States take the opposite route. Their draft asks officials to assess publications, training and certification, advisory and consulting services, partnerships, sponsorships and appropriate use of ITU intellectual property. Progress reports would set expected revenue beside associated costs and risks. That last pairing is the useful part: a new product can bring in money while consuming staff time, distracting from core work or creating a new commercial dependence. The proposal asks the Council to keep studying member categories, pricing, participation rights and exemptions as well.

This is a fight over where accountability sits. Deletion leaves resource mobilization to the existing strategy and scattered mandates. Revision writes an explicit checklist and reporting route into a conference resolution. PP-26 can choose either, amend both or keep the current text. The next meaningful evidence will be the conference’s decision and, if the Arab version survives, the first Council report that places projected receipts next to the bill for earning them.

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