Brussels, 06/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 6 November, the Lithuanian Presidency tweeted that it had finalised negotiations with the European Parliament on guidelines for the trans-European telecommunications networks. The agreement will be submitted to Coreper on 8 November.
An essential part of the digital agenda, the guidelines for the telecoms networks set out how to settle the issue of financing for broadband networks and how to select priority projects on digital service infrastructure. Following drastic cuts to the proposed budget by the European Council (€1 billion instead of the €9.2 billion required), an amended proposal was put forward by the European Commission in order to adjust the priorities according to this reduced budget. The Lithuanian Presidency therefore began the trialogue on 2 October. The regulation on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the guidelines for telecoms networks will enter into force from January 2014 in the three sectors concerned (energy, transport and telecoms). (IL/transl.fl)