ork programmes. The organisation is administered dation (ETIS) which has as its members the information sys- by one of the member nations for two years and meetings of the tems managers from the public telecommunication companies. Plenary body are held every two years. Presidency of CEPT moved Its aim is to allow CEPT members to share some of the devel- to Greece, from the UK, in October 1990. opment costs which they need to spend on software, required Historically CEPT has been noted for its restrictive bureaucratic for carrying out their internal network administration. policies rather than its commercial outlook, an image which it is The European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in anxious to change. In the past most of the PTTs only paid lip service Communications (EURESCOM) which consists of research to standardisation, and since the output from CEPT were recom- laboratories, based in Heidelberg, Germany, with the aim of mendations, which were not enforceable and contained many carrying out R&D on behalf of CEPT members. It therefore has country specific exceptions, the standardisation effort was largely a function very similar to that of Bell Communications Re- ineffectual. To some extent CEPT was an exclusive club in which search Inc. which does research for the US regional Bell com- non-telecommunication administrations and users were excluded panies. and not even consulted. A European Commission Green Paper in 1987, on competition in Europe within telecommunication markets, clearly defined the 22.4.3 PTTs as commercial undertakings, rather than monopolistic tele- communication administrations, who were subject to competition, 22.4.3.1 The formation of ETSI and with a separation of their regulatory and operational activities. This resulted in CEPT setting up an independent body, in January The Commission of the European Communities (CEC) in its Green 1988, called the European Telecommunications Standard Institute Paper 'The Development of the Common Market for Telecommuni- (ETSI) to carry out 