In an article published in the French newspaper Les Echos on 20 February, Champsaur put forward his ideas for the reform of the European Regulators Group (ERG), saying it "should develop from an informal network of regulators sharing best practices to a body with real governance whose decisions could be taken by qualified majority".
The intergovernmental solution suggested by Champsaur is perfectly in line with the critical position adopted by the French government and France Telecom against the new communitarian entity proposed by Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding as part of her overhaul of the European telecoms sector.
The nature of the French regulator's criticism emerged more clearly in the article published yesterday. "The proposed European Electronic Communication Market Authority will not work," Champsaur said. "It will be heavy, costly and cut off of the reality of the market, and paradoxically will send a contradictory message against the idea of progressive elimination of sector regulation," stated Champsaur.
This position is shared by other national regulators, who see the new body as a threat to their very existence. Hitherto, they had officially voiced their concerns on the independence of the Telecoms authority proposed by the European Commission. Roberto Viola, a former chairman of the European Regulators Group (ERG), raised the issue in the last meeting of ERG he chaired in December (see EurActiv 18/12/07).
Commissioner Reding's spokesperson Martin Selmayr reacted to Champsaur's statement by reiterating the rationale of the Commission's position, which does not propose a "super-regulator but a way to make more effective the way national regulators work".
In its first debates on the topic, the European Parliament gave the Commission's proposal a lukewarm reaction (see EurActiv 31/01/08). EU telecoms ministers have also expressed their concern. "Several member states expressed doubts related in particular to the need to create a new European agency and the extension of the Commission's competence in terms of regulatory conditions or frequency administration," said the conclusions of the Telecommunications Council of 29-30 November, the first to take place following the Commission's proposal in November.
