02/12/2019 (Agence Europe) – The incumbent telecommunications operators have called on the new Commission under von der Leyen to promote transnational consolidation in the EU to enable them to compete with the Chinese and the Americans. In a letter dated 2 December, some 20 top executives advocated for a “stable and sustainable regulatory environment” in Europe and for “fair and balanced rules,in order to compete with global players”. In the 28 EU Member States, nearly a hundred operators are battling it out against each other, while in China and the USA, only three or four of them share the market. This joint statement, made public by the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO), was published on the same day as a meeting of these big bosses with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, guardian of the free market in the EU. [Joint statement: http://bit.ly/2OI56BD ] (SPj)