The Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU is continuing its efforts for a general approach on the electronic communications code to be reached at the Telecommunications Council on 24 October. After services and the spectrum (see EUROPE 11848), it published its compromise proposals on the institutional component on 30 August.
The proposal for a directive presented in September 2016 recasts the 2002 framework directive, the authorisation directive, the access directive and the universal service directive. It seeks to ensure very high-speed access for businesses, access of at least 100 Mbit/second for European households and uninterrupted 5G coverage for all urban areas and main roads and motorways by 2025 (see EUROPE 11624). In view of the scale of the undertaking, the Presidency is working by themes: it will submit a 143-page long draft compromise on the institutional component to the telecommunications working group on 6 and 12 September.
Its flagship proposal is for a very clear distinction to be made between activities which “must” be performed by a national regulatory authority (NRA) and those “which an NRA may perform, but which may equally be undertaken by a competent authority having consulted with an NRA”. Thus, the Presidency proposes that the national regulatory authority be responsible at the least for ex ante market regulation, including the imposition of obligations for access and interconnection, granting general authorisation and the resolution of disputes between undertakings. To the proposal, it attaches a non-exhaustive list of tasks for which regulatory authorities will be responsible and those on which they must be consulted in advance and informed of the outcome.
Elsewhere, the Presidency amends the general authorisation procedure: it is of the view that providers should submit notifications to national regulatory authorities (status quo) and not to the BEREC a “one-stop shop”. The Presidency says, nonetheless, that BEREC should maintain an EU database of the notifications transmitted to the national regulatory authorities. The Presidency also proposes that reviews be carried out every five years rather than every three years, as put forward by the Commission. The Presidency text may be viewed at: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-11679-2017-INIT/en/pdf (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)