Brussels, 06/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just presented a proposed decision to the Council, on the notification to South Korea of the EU's withdrawal from the agreement concluded with Seoul on telecommunications markets.
This agreement, which entered into force on 1 November 1997, provided for reciprocal, transparent and non-discriminatory market access launched by certain specifically designated telecommunications operators (TOs). Since the European telecommunications market was liberalised, the agreement has no longer applied to European TOs as they now no longer come under the public procurement regime. In 2002, Seoul asked for Korea Telecom (KT) to be excluded from the scope of the agreement. This request, which followed on from a privatisation procedure and rested on the fact that, according to the Korean side, the level of liberalisation attained was similar to that in force in the EU, and that the agreement should therefore not continue to apply to KT. The mission of the Republic of Korea to Brussels recently confirmed that it was asking for the immediate relinquishment of the bilateral agreement, preferably by mutual consent, or, in default, unilaterally. Seoul, furthermore, called for KT to be withdrawn for the list of entities concerned in the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) of the WTO. Having initially rejected this request, the EU finally withdrew its objection in September 2003, recognising, de facto, that the degree of liberalisation and competition, and the absence of control of influence by a State, to accept KT's withdrawal from the GPA.
The Community industry, represented by the main suppliers of telecommunications materials established in Korea, was consulted on the abolition of the EU-Korea agreement on telecommunications markets, and came out in favour of a dialogue on information technology (IT), which was suggested by Korea. The Korean side indicated that it wanted to maintain dialogue with the EU, via discussions between Korea and the EU on IT, which would be possible as part of the EU-Korea framework agreement.
In this context, the Commission considered that keeping the bilateral "telecomms" agreement was unjustified, and that the EU should respond favourably to Korea's request to abolish the agreement. It therefore proposed to the Council to notify Seoul of the EU's withdrawal from the agreement, in line with a procedure provided by the latter. The Commission stresses that, given the fact that Korea asked for the agreement to be ended by mutual agreement and expressed a preference to avoid unilateral cancellation, "the most appropriate procedure seems to be that the EU accedes to the Korean request using the mechanism provided by the agreement and by inviting the government of Korea to proceed to a similar notification".