Brussels, 05/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, Telecommunications Ministers reached agreement on three directives of the "Telecommunications Package", thereby opening the way to greater competition in this sector, liberalised since 1 January 1998. Swedish Minister Bjorn Rosengren, President of the Telecommunications Council, said at the end of lengthy discussions that "the large countries have watered down their wine to further open a highly regulated and a monopolistic-type market". A large part of common competition law will apply to the telecommunications market, but the Commission was refused the supervisory role it hoped to play in relation to national regulatory authorities (NRAs) and the policy for allocating radio frequencies. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for the information society, expressed surprise. "We knew it would be difficult. We have taken a step backwards, but on the whole what happened today was positive for the market", he declared.
The agreement on the framework directive was reached after a lengthy debate on Articles 6 and 13, which respectively define the role of the European Commission in relation to NRAs and the notion of "significant power on the market" enabling NRAs to designate those operators on which specific obligations will be imposed. The Commission did not secure the right to withdraw or amend, in the framework of Article 6, a measure taken by a NRA, but only the possibility of rendering a detailed opinion should a NRA decision be incompatible with Community law. A second hitch to its ambition was that ministers refused, through a unanimous decision, to introduce the policy of the allocation of a radio spectrum in the Article 6 consultation mechanism. Mr. Liikanen declared here that "the legislative process is not over, the text will go to second reading". The definition of "significant power on the market" will be analysed from the point of view of common competition law in the case of individual dominance; in case of oligopoly, however, the Council decided, against the Commission's initial proposal, to define a dominant position in reference to a list of criteria annexed to the framework-directive. Among these criteria, we find, among others, the notion of weak elasticity of demand, lack of competition potential and technological innovation. The Commission wanted to apply common competition law and had proposed to the Council referring to its "guidelines" based on European case-law. Only Germany and Italy backed the idea.
Ministers also reached a political agreement on the proposal for a directive on access and inter-connection and the one of the authorisation of electronic communication networks and services. These two proposals were linked to a decision on the framework-directive.
Per Hauggard, spokesman for Commissioner Liikanen, declared on Thursday that the "Commission considers it has come out loser on two essential aspects of Article 6 of the framework-directive and will work in close collaboration with the European Parliament during the remainder of the legislative process to make as much progress as possible". An observer pointed out that, after this check, the Commission would seek the support of Parliament to win the battle over the introduction of the policy onradio spectra in Article 6 of the framework-directive and gain greater influence over NRAs, which the Council refused.