27 th Universal Postal Union Congress Concluded

At the Congress a new leadership was elected and, among other things, a Postal Strategy for the period from 2022 to 2025 was adopted.
 
ZAGREB, September 6, 2021. After three weeks of work, the 27 th World Postal Union (UPU) Congress was concluded, where the acts of the UPU were amended and a new leadership was elected. The Congress was held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from August 9 to 27. The largest number of amendments to the acts referred to the organisation and financing of UPU in the forthcoming four-year period, and a smaller number referred to the postal operation, mainly to the correction of terminal costs. The highest allowable budget for the operation of the UPU has been determined and provisions have been amended with the aim of opening the SPU as effectively as possible to other interested stakeholders of the world postal system, and the Postal Strategy for the period 2022-2025 has been adopted, which will be presented to the public on the www.upu.int portal, where all decisions made at the Congress are detailed.

For the first time in its long history, the Congress, consisted  of representatives of 192 Member States, was held hybrid in such a way that the Member States could be present virtually via videoconferencing and/or physically in Abidjan, while voting for the UPU  leadership was possible only  physically or through credentials and written instructions on the voting mode to allow Member States virtually participating in the work of the Congress to elect another Member State physically present in the Congress. For this reason, the UPU leadership elected 161 Member States, 106 of which were physically present at the Congress, and the Republic of Croatia had credentials and written instructions on how to vote from the Republic of Northern Macedonia.

Masahiko Metoki from Japan was elected the new Director General in the first round of voting by a simple majority of votes (102 votes), and Marjan Osvald fom Slovenia was elected Deputy Director, also with a simple majority of votes. The Member States that will be in the Parliamentary Council (CA) and the Postal Operational Council (POC) have also been voted out, and among the elected members, we would like to mention that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a new member of the SPU parliamentary Council. It was also decided that the next regular UPU Congress would take place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and that the fourth extraordinary Congress would be held on the subject of expanding the SPU to other postal sector stakeholders during 2023.