Brussels, 18/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Revision of the telecoms package must not infringe upon specific national situations, says the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). In a report presented on Wednesday 16 December, the organisation comes out against maximum harmonisation and recommends a bottom-up approach. “If the European Commission were to have the final word (on frequency allocation), that would delay the whole process and create additional red tape”, argued BEREC member Ervin Kajzinger.
European telecommunications rules are based on a multitude of directives, such as the framework directive (2002/21/EC) and the universal service directive (2002/22/EC). This core has been complemented (then revised) by other instruments, such as the regulation on BEREC (1211/2009) and the one on roaming charges (717/2007). In its strategy for a digital single market, the Commission undertook to bring forward new legislative proposals in 2016 to ensure more effective coordination of the radio spectrum, provide incentives for investment in ultra-fast broadband and ensure equitable competition conditions for all market players. For this purpose, it launched two public consultations (one on the body of rules and the other on platforms) and sought the opinion of BEREC to inform its consideration.
Subsidiarity, always and still. The opinion adopted by BEREC in plenary session in London on 10 December argues for proportionate regulation that takes account that “connectivity objectives and spectrum capacity requirements for electronic communications services will vary from one member state to another”. BEREC believes that top-down harmonisation runs the risk of sterilising spectrum and resulting in inefficient use of this scarce resource, hampering rather than supporting innovation. Furthermore, this approach would risk bringing the level of end user protection down to the lowest common denominator. For the same reason, BEREC - which is, in fact, made up of national regulators - believes that the member states should retain the discretion to define the scope of a universal service obligation that reflects the specific needs of their national market, including setting the particular technical parameters of a broadband access universal service obligation. The Commission is looking to revise the universal service directive (2002/22/EC).
In terms of protecting end users, BEREC, while recognising the importance of general consumer law, says that some sector-specific end-user regulation will remain critical. It is of the view that the telecoms framework should not be extended to all new services which use the Web network for their telecoms services (“over-the-top players” or OTTs).
BEREC does not believe that any major changes need to be brought to the way it operates. However, it urges the Commission to “align the minimum competences of national regulators to those of BEREC, to ensure the work of BEREC reflects the experience of all 28 national markets”.
New board. BEREC's 25th plenary meeting also saw the election of a new board and the adoption of its work programme for 2016. The new team will have Wilhelm Eschweiler (BNetzA) as its Chair, with his two assistants Angelo Cardani (AGCOM) and Henk Don (ACM), along with outgoing Chair Fatima Barros (ANACOM) and 2017 Chair-elect Sébastien Soriano (ARCEP).
Other documents were also adopted, including a report on the regulation of oligopolies, another on IP-based interconnection for voice services, a termination rates benchmarking report and a joint BEREC-ERGP (European Regulators group for Postal Services) opinion on cross-border parcels delivery. The next BEREC plenary meeting will take place in Rotterdam (Netherlands) on 25-26 February. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)