Brussels, 01/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - Thanks to the Commission's guidance in the consultation and review process known as the “Article 7 procedure”, EU telecoms markets have become more competitive, a European Commission report released on Tuesday 1 June shows. However, the report also indicates that a single EU telecoms market is still far off. “Commission guidance … has guaranteed a level of consistency and predictability that gives investors confidence. However, we need more coordinated regulation to ensure harmonised implementation and proper functioning of a single EU telecoms market,” said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Her counterpart at Competition, Joaquín Almunia said: “The report highlights that implementation of EU telecom rules … has opened up telecoms markets to competition, bringing greater choice and cheaper prices to EU citizens and businesses”.
The “Article 7 procedure” is a consultation and evaluation procedure under which national regulators must give the Commission advance warning of their plans on regulating parts of their national markets before adopting a decision. The report published on Tuesday outlines major trends and issues arising from the Article 7 procedure over the past two years. On the whole, this notification procedure has led to less and better regulation across EU telecoms markets. However national telecoms regulators continue to apply diverging solutions to cases where there are similar competition problems. These include: (1) treatment of fibre access products in the wholesale broadband markets; (2) applying different calculations for the charges at which operators offer part of their networks (access) or convey calls for other operators; (3) different regulatory approaches in cases where telecom operators separate the provision of services to other telecoms operators from those provided to end-users (functional separation). With effect from May 2011, revised EU telecoms rules will give the Commission additional responsibilities for the imposition and implementation of remedies, with the help of the new Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). The Commission is committed to ensuring the consistent application of the EU telecoms rules and to promoting further high speed broadband roll-out as provided for in the Digital Agenda for Europe. The Commission, with BEREC, is also considering further instructions to telecoms regulators on the consistent implementation of separation commitments and remedies. (I.L./transl.rt)