EU telecoms standards institute elects new general director for next five years

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) elected Jan Ellsberger as its new director general in its election general assembly on Tuesday (16 April).

Gilles Brégant, reportedly the European Commission’s favoured candidate, did not make it to the third round of votes.

Founded in 1988, ETSI supports EU regulation by giving expert input on standards to legislators.

Incumbent director Luis Jorge Romero will hand over to Jan Ellsberger in June, who won the last round of votes with a 54.6% majority.

Ellsberger told Euractiv he was “committed to work” with all “stakeholders to re-establish ETSI’s role in the European Standardisation System,” including supporting strategic technologies like cybersecurity and AI.

Taking turns on stage at the general assembly, Romero emphasised the successes of his past work and Brégant affirmed ETSI leadership and relevance.

Ellsberger will have to take up the challenge of navigating ETSI’s rocky relationship with the European Commission, which criticised the body for being under “undue influence” of non-European companies.

According to a report by Euronews, the Commission unofficially suggested that national government members of ETSI voted for Brégant, who was seen as a candidate without links to foreign companies.

This was also the first time an ETSI election was held with ETSI’s new internal procedures, allowing members to vote remotely.

The election

Yet, Euractiv understands that only 200 organisations voted, with over 300 attendees at the general assembly, out of a total of more than 850 members.

The election was conducted using a weighted voting system, a recent change intended to give more weight to smaller organisations.

The weighted system gave three to 29 voting weights according to the size of organisation, which is composed of both public and private entities.

Member countries with the smallest gross domestic product (GDP), under €7 billion, had three voting weights, while member countries with the highest GDP, had 29 voting weights.

Smaller companies, with a telecom-related turnover under €135 million, were allocated four voting weights, whereas larger companies, with a turnover exceeding €8 billion, received 29 voting weights. Companies falling between these two categories had a voting weight ranging from five to 28.

Results

The first round of votes was almost a draw, with Ellsberger and Romero receiving 34% of the votes each, and Brégant 32%. Candidates needed 71% of the votes to be elected.

In the second round, Romero took the lead with 36.5% of the votes, Ellsberger 32%, and Brégant 31.5%.

No candidate was elected as they needed 71%, Brégant was disqualified from the third round by 0.5%.

In the final round of votes, Romero got 45.3% of the votes.

EU telecoms standards institute set for new leadership

Amid a cooled relationship with the EU Commission, the bloc’s telecoms standardisation body is set to elect a new leader on April 16.

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

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