European Framework Applauded and Criticized at Hearing
At an ITRE hearing on 27 February, representatives of several telecommunications operators, the British NRA Ofcom and the European regulators Group (ERG) had the opportunity to comment publicly on the 2008 European Framework Review.
ITRE is the European Parliament’s committee on Industry, Research and Energy. The Chairman of the European Regulators Group Mr. Daniel Pataki held a speech in which he applauded the Framework as a European success story.
“Though we are regulators, our spontaneous instinct at the ERG is not always to regulate! We have to allow market forces to play where they do work. Where they don’t work we have to assess the role of competition policy. Within the ERG, there is exceptionally strong agreement on having to tread carefully as regulators. But there is equally strong agreement to act when necessary,” Mr. Pataki said.
The ERG chairman criticized the EC’s proposal for a new regulatory body, the European Electronic Communications Market Authority (EECMA). “EECMA, as proposed, does not score well in terms of efficiency, consistency, independence, political viability and accountability,” he said. “The opportunity now is to embed a strengthened and accountable ERG in European law, which will build on that achievement, not knock the house down and start again.”
Ms. Andrea Renda from the Centre for European Policy Studies was equally critical of the Commission’s plans, “the current proposal should be significantly amended, as it violates subsidiarity, increases complexity and does not guarantee any better regulation”, she said.
Speakers from operators Tele2 and SFR sounded positive notes on the European regulatory practice. By contrast, representatives of Deutsche Telecom and Telefonica condemned the regulatory plans of the commission. “Currently regulation has met its objective but the model has to change,” Telefonica’s Carlos López Blanco said, calling functional separation “unnecessary, complex and confusing the telecoms sector, favoring neither competition nor consumers.”
In view of the hearing ETNO, the association of European telecoms network operators, urged EU policymakers to focus the review debate on how to enable businesses and consumers to benefit from high-speed broadband networks. “Recent economic analysis demonstrates that intense access regulation increases reliance on existing networks and discourages the deployment of new and alternative networks. Such an approach risks leading to technological stagnation and negatively affect consumer choice. This risk would be aggravated further with a remedy such as functional separation,” ETNO stated in a press release.
“Instead of focusing on increased access regulation, the 2008 review should explore existing ways to encourage all market players to invest and facilitate wherever possible the emergence of sustainable competition between networks”, ETNO said.
Source: ITRE, ERG, ETNO
You can download the ITRE hearing presentations from Ofcom, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Tele2, SFR, ERG, ENISA, CEPS at the EP website.
