Brussels renews attempt to seize control of telecoms

The European Commission has drafted a revised set of rules for the Internet and telecoms sector to be presented in November. Overruling a European Parliament vote earlier in September, Brussels is pushing for more European rather than national control over telecoms.

When EU telecoms ministers gather in Brussels on 27 November for their only meeting under the French Presidency this semester, they will find a revised proposal for the bloc’s ongoing review of the “regulatory framework for electronic communications” on the table.

The revised proposal, seen by EURACTIV, reintroduces a veto power for the Commission and establishes a new Office for European Telecoms Regulators (OETR), which will be heavily controlled by Brussels.

With its new proposal, the EU executive wants to favour the emergence of new operators and ultimately force cuts in phone tariffs by further harmonising fragmented European telecoms markets.

On a collision course with Parliament and European capitals

However, it does so by ignoring a revision of the proposal voted upon by the Parliament earlier this year, which broadly reflected the views of national capitals (EURACTIV 25/09/08).

In a vote on 24 September, MEPs rejected the Commission’s proposed European ‘super authority’, called EECMA, and replaced it with a kind of forum for national regulators (renamed BERT, see background).

But the EU executive is now rejecting those amendments, pushing instead for the introduction of a new authority, called OETR, which would be run by an “administrative board” composed of 12 members – half of which would be appointed by the Commission and the other half by governments. National authorities would be represented individually on a secondary board, which would have an advisory role to the governing board. 

With its revised proposal, the Commission is in fact broadly re-introducing its original plan. In the September vote, the Parliament scrapped the proposed administrative board, leaving all the power directly with national authorities. But the EU executive says it “cannot accept the deletion of the administrative board which ensures a community approach” to regulating the sector, according to the document obtained by EURACTIV.

In addition, the Commission is awarding itself a veto right over measures adopted by national regulators, contradicting the Parliament. Indeed, one of the amendments introduced by MEPs last September said national measures should be checked by the EU executive, with national authorities ultimately maintaining control over decisions.

“The Commission cannot accept the wording of this element of the European Parliament proposed amendment, since it would allow (the Office) to usurp the [its] role as guardian of the Treaty,” the EU executive said in its revised proposal.

In concessions made to Parliament and member states, the Commission accepted the majority of MEPs’ amendments on issues such as functional separation, electronic data protection, copyrights and network security. But the changes it reintroduced makes an agreement on the package at the November Telecoms Council increasingly unlikely.

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