Representatives from the European Parliament, Council and Commission met up on Tuesday 20 March to continue their inter-institutional negotiations on the electronic communications code. The meeting ratified the progress made at a technical level and put forward different ways of helping the European Commission suggest solutions on unresolved political questions.
It should be recalled that the 283-page directive recasts the 2002 framework directive, and the “authorisation”, “access” and “universal service” directives (see EUROPE 11624). So far, six trialogues have been organised on this 2016 proposal that seeks to introduce greater predictability and legal certainty in view of encouraging investment (see EUROPE 11624).
The trialogue on 20 March lasted less than three hours in total, despite two separate sessions (the one in the morning with representatives from Parliament's industry committee and the other in the afternoon with internal market committee representatives). A source from the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council informed us that, “practically all the remaining questions have been put on the table, including governance, access, universal service and end-users’ rights”.
ITRE: co-investment and oligopolies still on the table
The same source also indicated that by the end of the morning (only 75 minutes of discussions), “We made progress on the provisions for access and outlined the possible parameters for an agreement (which still needs to be explored)”.
According to the information we have received, the co-legislators confirmed the progress made at a technical level on the rights of appeal (article 43), the rights and responsibilities of companies (article 58), access to civil engineering infrastructure (article 70), specific network infrastructure access obligations and use (71), regulation of specifically wholesale networks, whose operators are powerful on the market (77) and the role of the national regulators in monitoring powerful market operators who migrate their traditional networks to new networks (78b).
The negotiators also proceeded to another exchange of views on the controversial questions of co-investment (article 74), oligopolies (articles 59(2) and 61) and solutions (33(5)) but without reaching agreement. One source close to the dossier informed us that the results of their discussions should help to guide a compromise proposal from the European Commission.
IMCO: reverse 112 number and intra-EU calls as exchange currency
In the afternoon, negotiators examined questions relating to consumer rights. They also approved a range of compromises prepared at a technical level on consultation with interested parties (article 24), the exemption clause on micro-companies (91(a)), non-discrimination (92), harmonisation level (94(1)), duration/termination of contract (98) and the change of provider and number portability (99). They are, for example, opting for maximum harmonisation (but have still not resolved the question of the transition period).
They also discussed several aspects of the universal service, such as financing modes. Contrary to what was on the agenda, they did not, however, have time to discuss equivalent access for persons with disabilities or the reverse 112 number (see EUROPE 11984). Neither did they discuss international intra-EU calls in the knowledge that the Commission is due to present an “options paper” in the next few weeks.
The next trialogue has been arranged for 25 April. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)