Brussels, 20/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - By adopting on Tuesday with a majority (429 for, 31 against and 36 abstentions) the report by the British Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg on the implementation regulations governing communications, the Parliament lamented the fact that only five member state have, until now, respected the timeframe for the transposition of the 'package' of new directives aiming to liberalise the sector. Thus it calls on the European Commission to launch an infringement procedure and make use of other instruments (such as the publication of documents and studies).
For consumers to enjoy conditions of long-term healthy competition, the Parliament believes that the national regulatory authorities (NRA) must introduce regulatory barriers allowing for a fair balance between consumer price cuts and the need to retain sufficient profit margins. In view of enlargement, the Parliament invites the Commission to present it with a report on the state of readiness of the future EU member states and to foresee technical assistance necessary to facilitate essential change by these countries. Underlining the role of regulators, the Parliament insists on the independence of the European regulatory authorities group (ERG) and the NRA, and also recommends the progressive merger of the ERG and the independent regulatory authorities group whose mandates are relatively similar. The Parliament also calls for the member states to review their legal procedures in order to rapidly, efficiently and expertly investigate cases they are referred and calls on the Commission to study ways to encourage cooperation and the exchange of information between member states, in order to facilitate the forming of coherent jurisprudence on the matter. Finally, the Parliament states its concern for incoherence that remains in the allocation of financing to the universal service and insists for it to be allocated via a tender procedure in order to avoid discrimination.