Following the request of various members, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) has suspended the memberships of the Russian Federation and Belarus. The decision was made after the proposal to suspend the two nations received 34 responses in favour and one abstention.

Based on this, the CEPT has issued the following decisions:

1. To suspend CEPT memberships of the Russian Federation and Belarus with immediate and indefinite effect.
2. The suspension will take effect from 00:00 (CET), 18 March 2022.
3. Any future readmission would need to follow standard rules established in the CEPT Arrangement, notably the need for a two-thirds majority of CEPT members for a readmission to be permitted.

The decision comes as the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies, prompting the international community and multilateral organisations to increase the severity of sanctions against the aggressors as an attempt to deter the conflict. As the coordinating body for Europe’s telecommunications and postal organisations, the suspension is likely to cause disruption to Russian and Belarusian communication systems.Access Partnership will continue to monitor the consequences of this development over the coming weeks.Subscribe to our news alerts here.