Brussels, 05/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Although they demonstrated a high degree of unanimity on the objectives pursued by the new telecommunications regulatory framework, ministers responsible expressed some reservations, indeed distrust, about the instruments proposed by the European Commission for attaining them. Ministers were speaking during the policy debate on Thursday 5 December at the Telecommunications Council. The sector is already very highly regulated compared to other sectors and consequently very great attention should be paid to the future framework. Its adoption should not be determined by the question of time alone. At this stage, no common position has been achieved and the Greek Presidency will be responsible for continuing the debate in the first half of 2014. Rimantas Sinkevicius, the Lithuanian minister for transport and communications, said that “we do not disagree with the Commission's analysis… but on certain questions, such as spectrum and roaming, we do agree on saying that the current instruments have not been used in an optimum way… Certain member states believe that the project only tackles part of the problem… A more comprehensive and holistic approach is required”. Neelie Kroes, the commissioner responsible for the digital strategy, said that she had noted the ministers' concerns and pointed out that they had to work together on the substance of the proposal. She also said that she was pleased by the consensus apparent on the main aim pursued by the Commission, namely that of making Europe a connected u continent. The commissioner highlighted, however, the urgent need to define a coherent framework and urged the Council to speed up the work to catch up with the European Parliament, which was making good progress on the dossier.
During the discussions, the overall majority of member states disagreed with the European Commission proposals, mainly on two points: common regulation principles for radio frequency authorisation procedures for wireless broadband (radio spectrum frequency) and aligning roaming services with national prices by 2016.
In the area of radio electric spectrum, they agree on developing the necessary degree of coordination and member states said that they believe that it is up to them to decide this policy and they do not want to lose their powers in this field. They oppose Europe-wide harmonisation for allocating frequency and call for more attention to be paid to national specificities. With regard to roaming, member states have even more misgivings about the scrapping of roaming charges. This provision would create a high level of uncertainty among operators, while the third regulation is having difficulty entering into force. On these two points, the Netherlands' position stood out: on the spectrum issue, the country considers that common European rules are necessary for strengthening the European economy and, on roaming, it is in favour of aligning roaming tariffs on national prices (“roam like home”). On this final point, the Czech Republic also is not against price alignment. Many member states had misgivings about complete harmonisation in the field of consumer protection. Germany, Slovenia, Austria and France consider that the level of protection is already high in their respective countries and are afraid of a levelling down of quality in this respect, which would erode this high level of protection. With regard to ending practices seeking to block or hinder competitive or high band width services (net neutrality), member states agreed with the principle but believe that the regulation of the exemptions included in the pick and mix approach that operators will still be able to offer their customers, is too vague and lacks detail. The provision for creating a single authorising body for operators active in several member states was mixed: too many uncertainties persist in the approach selected and a heavier administrative burden on regulators and operators could result. The national regulatory powers could also be weakened to the benefit of the Commission, which member states oppose. They are more in favour of developing greater co-operation among regulators.
Small member states, such as Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus, also had concerns about how the legislative package would lead to market consolidation. They are afraid that small operators would disappear to the advantage of the bigger operators and a more oligopolistic situation would arise again. In addition to discussing the package, member states also discussed the most recent developments in the digital economy, such as cloud computing and Big Data. They agreed that emerging fields should be subject to lighter touch regulation at this stage, particularly with regard to the European Cloud Partnership.
The Greek Presidency will now be in charge of developing the debate on all the points mentioned over the next six months. The European Parliament has already made good progress in its work. At the end of February, the ITRE committee is expected to vote on the report by Pilar del Castillo (EPP, Spain) and the plenary vote is expected in April. Commissioner Kroes concluded that “a number of questions need to be improved… let's all get to work”. (IL/transl.fl)