European Parliament Votes to Strengthen EU Single Market for Telecoms

July 10, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

Even though the final view of the European Parliament will only be known once the Plenary has voted on these proposals made by the European Commission (EC) - a vote expected to take place on Sep. 3, 2008 - the ITRE and IMCO votes are important steps towards shaping the final legislative texts to be adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council of Ministers.

Viviane Reding, EC telecoms commissioner, noted that while some progress has been made on radio spectrum reform, she would have liked the Parliament committees to be more ambitious.

"Radio spectrum is a very valuable economic and societal resource, and a more efficient and consistent management of spectrum would help us achieving a Europe with broadband for all," said Reding, who stated she planned to continue working in this area to assure progress is made before the September vote.

Reding also noted that many questions remain open as regards the new institutional structure that should be responsible for EU telecoms regulation from 2010 onwards.

Although Reding said she welcomed the good intentions behind the idea of creating a new Body of European Regulators for Telecommunications (BERT), she had doubts whether BERT and the new Article 7 procedure will be able to deliver coherent regulatory responses to the regulatory obstacles she feels are present in a single telecommunications market for Europe.

"The EU Telecoms Reform is of great importance for the strengthening of a Single Telecoms Market to the benefit of both operators and consumers," said Reding.

"Consensus on the Telecoms Package is needed to strengthen effective competition on the telecoms markets and the competitiveness of the EU as a whole. Yesterday evening's endorsement of functional separation as a new tool for telecoms regulation is therefore good news as it will enable national regulators to address cases of persistent competition bottlenecks," she added.

Summary of the July 8 vote

• The ITRE Committee has accepted a number of the EC's key proposals, including the addition of functional separation to the toolbox of national regulators to ensure competition.
• The ITRE and IMCO Committees agreed that national regulators should be able to require a dominant operator to separate its access network infrastructure and service arms, in order to give other competitors a fair chance to offer services using that infrastructure.
• The ITRE and IMCO Committees voted in favor of strengthening the cooperation of national telecoms regulators by creating a new body composed of independent telecoms regulators, called Body of European Regulators for Telecommunications.
• In contrast to the EC's proposals, BERT will have substantially less powers and will not be mainly financed from the EU budget. Instead, two-thirds will be paid by national taxpayers.
• BERT will not be combined with the existing European Network Information and Security Agency (ENISA), as had been proposed by the EC in order to create synergies and avoid the creation of an additional EU agency. Instead, the committees voted to prolong the mandate of ENISA until 2012.
• The IMCO Committee accepted most of the EC's proposals to enhance transparency on pricing and conditions.
• The IMCO Committee endorsed the better deal on number portability. This will enable consumers to shop around for competitive offers.
• Disabled users will benefit from better access to telecoms services, such as 112 or TV channels' subtitles. However, an EC proposal to oblige operators to warn consumers when their private data are compromised was watered down.

The EC tabled its proposals for the reform of the Telecoms Reform Package in November 2007 (IP/07/1677). Since then, the Council of Telecoms Ministers has had a chance to express its views on the EC's proposals (MEMO/07/522, MEMO/08/384); it is now time for the European Parliament to give its views.

Next steps

Sep. 3, 2008: Vote on the EU telecoms reform proposals in the European Parliament's plenary.

Nov. 27, 2008: The Council of Telecoms Ministers could, under the French Presidency, pave the way for finalizing the legislative texts.

Further information
For more information, see the press releases on Telecoms package: EU-wide spectrum management for full benefits of wireless service and Progress Made on the EU Telecoms Reform Package.

Source: European Commission.