European Parliament: no Overall Agreement on Telecoms Issues with Council
A user’s internet access cannot be restricted without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, the Industry Committee of the European Parliament (ITRE) insisted yesterday. The Committee also agreed on setting up a new regulatory body, comprising the heads of all national European telecommunications NRAs.
The Parliament’s first-reading amendment states that “no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities (…) save when public security is threatened”. Negotiations between MEPs and the Czech Presidency to reach an agreement on this issue will continue.
The Industry Committee also backed the political agreement reached with the Czech Presidency on setting up a new European body of all 27 telecom regulators named BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications). The new body will consist of the heads of the national regulators and a European Commission representative.
MEPs and the Czech Presidency do agree that, before taking regulatory decisions, national regulatory authorities will have to consult the Commission and BEREC. The new body will advise the Commission, and upon request, the European Parliament and the Council.
National regulators will have to take “utmost account” of any “serious doubts” expressed by the Commission and BEREC. In that case, BEREC, the Commission and the national regulator should cooperate closely in identifying “the most appropriate and effective measure” before the national regulator adopts the remedy, says the agreed text.
The compromise enables a national regulator to force an integrated incumbent operator to carry out functional separation. However, this “exceptional measure” should only be taken when any other regulatory tools have failed to achieve effective competition.
In the future, a dominant operator can be obliged to open up “network elements and associated facilities” such as building wiring (including inside buildings), masts, antennas, towers, and conduits to competitors, says the compromise.
National regulators should promote “efficient investment and innovation in new and enhanced infrastructures” such as new fibre-optic networks (“next generation access networks”).
Any access obligation to open this new infrastructure to competitors will have to take “appropriate account of the risk incurred by the investing undertakings” and should allow for “cooperative agreements between investors and access seeking parties” to diversify investment risks, the agreement specifies.
MEPs also adopted a partial compromise reached on the revision of the electronic communications framework and specific directives. To improve cooperation, strategic planning and harmonisation of spectrum use among Member States, the Commission should table a legislative proposal for a multiannual radio spectrum action programme.
The reform of the electronic communications regulatory framework would introduce service and technology neutrality as binding principles, i.e. any frequency band may be used for any application so long as this complies with national frequency allocation plans.
Applying these principles would, for example, allow for reallocating the spectrum dividend resulting from the digital switchover of broadcasting to provide wireless broadband services in the future.
Source: EP
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