Brussels, 13/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - During a speech on competition policy and the new economy given on Tuesday in Barcelona on the occasion of the Conference EUROPE 20/20, European Commissioner Mario Monti lodged a challenge against those who claim that the application of competition rules to certain high tech sectors is superfluous in so far as the markets correct themselves. He believes it is also impossible to achieve as changes are too rapid for the relevant authorities to take decisions in good time. The Commissioner responsible for competition felt that "the general nature of the competition rules gives them an important advantage over most other legal rules because they apply to the factual circumstances of a particular case, no matter how quickly industries develop or change". He above all stressed that "competition is essential because we do not want the development of the information society to take place under a de facto monopolistic regime".
Mr Monti recalled the Commission's vigilance with regard to implementation of the provisions on opening up the local loop to competition. He deplored the slowness of the process and the obstruction practised by traditional operators towards new entrants, saying "they are at the same time taking advantage of their control of the local loop to roll out their new ADSL broadband services". Speaking of mobile telephony, Mr Monti deplored the high level of prices for so-called "roaming" operations (from one operator to another), and warned that "if it is not possible to apply them effectively to raoming, then we may need to take steps to ensure that roaming is regulated, and becomes cost-orientated - which it is manifestly not at the moment". Finally, Mr Monti gave his assurance that, unlike certain statement published in the press, the Commission did not intend to use legislative means to ban the sharing of network infrastructure with a view to introducing the third generation of mobile phones. "We will assess any proposals by companies on a case-by-case basis under the competition rules", he said, going on to specify that "clearly we shall have to examine each of these schemes against a number of criteria including the duration of the network sharing and its geographical extent as well as the market position of the companies in second generation (2G) markets". Mr Monti stressed that the sharing agreements between companies would be carefully scrutinised by his services but that the Commission would not state its opposition unless consumers suffered from the agreements. "We will not authorise the forms of coordination which would lead to coordinated behaviour that would damage consumers", he concluded.