The President
The President is elected by the General Assembly for a two-year term. The President is responsible for all the organization's activities and oversees its operations in general. He presides over the annual General Assembly as well as the meetings of the Administrative Council and the Presidency.
Fritz Pleitgen (Director General of WDR, Westdeutscher Rundfunk) has been President of the EBU since September 2006. He succeeded Arne Wessberg, the former Director General of YLE, who was EBU President from January 2001 to August 2006.
The Presidency
The Presidency comprises the President and the four Vice-Presidents. Meetings are convened either by the President or at the request of at least two Vice-Presidents whenever it is deemed necessary.
The Presidency is currently made up of:
The Presidency’s tasks include taking decisions on all urgent matters, including those with budgetary implications which fall within the competence of the Administrative Council, subject to suspension or modification by the Administrative Council; identifying major regulatory issues and matters of strategic importance on which the EBU should adopt a position; and prepares the discussion thereof within the Administrative Council, etc.
The Director General, the Chairmen of the Committees, the Chairman of the Finance Group may participate as of right in Presidency meetings, except if it decides to meet in closed session.