Brussels, 09/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - With the MEPs of the ITRE committee of the European Parliament having started talks on possible amendments to the European Commission's proposed regulation on the single telecommunications market, the commissioner with responsibility for the digital strategy, Neelie Kroes, has called on both the Parliament and the Council of Ministers immediately to support her efforts to simplify the administrative formalities required of service providers. According to the Commission, the final regulation would allow, amongst other things, small operators to develop on a cross-border level more easily. “I'm deeply grateful to the European Parliament for working intensively on this proposal. The first step is making it possible for telecoms providers to operate easily across borders, especially smaller ones. It's time for the red tape to go”, said the commissioner.
The Commission's proposal aims to facilitate the expansion of telecoms services in three ways: 1) a single point of authorisation for operators active on two or more markets of the European Union, rather than 28 national procedures; 2) more consistent treatment applied by the regulatory authorities to multi-country telecoms providers in the EU, in order to encourage new business developments in more member states; 3) making it easier for small operators to expand across borders, by ensuring that they would not have to contribute to regulators' administrative costs or universal service funds.
At the Telecommunications Council of 5 December, Kroes welcomed the swift progress made by the European Parliament on the telecoms package, even though she does not necessarily agree with certain proposals emerging for the amendments, she stressed. The rapporteur, Pilar del Castillo Vera (EPP, Spain), started talks on Monday 9 December with the other MEPs about her report. On 18 November, she revealed the broad outlines of this draft (see EUROPE 10966). (IL/transl.fl)