Brussels, 07/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - Competition is growing fiercer in the fast expanding European electronic communications market. There are variations from one Member State to the next and it is therefore necessary to move forward toward the adoption and implementation of European legislation. Such are the broad lines of the 2004 report on the European electronic communications market presented on 6 December by Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information Society. "For the first time, the report covers all 25 Member States and applies for a full year", Viviane Reding said, going on to add: "The electronic communications sector is a factor of growth and prosperity that is determining for the European economy. It is therefore essential to have effective competition in the sector if we wish to achieve the Lisbon goals. The end of monopolies and the arrival of new entrants on the market have a positive impact on prices, choice and quality of products and services. After a period of uncertainty, market confidence has been renewed. Two areas have been a success: mobile telephony and broad band. Nonetheless, despite significant progress made, there are delays when it comes to regulatory transposition and implementation".
In Europe, there are 379 million mobile telephony users (83% of the European population). Some new Member States, like Lithuania and the Czech Republic, make an active contribution to this result. After a period of concern, the high-speed third generation networks and services have become a reality in most Member States with a total of 2.6 million subscribers at European level. For broad band, growth in the number of lines is 72%, totalling almost 30 million lines. The EU is, however, lagging behind in this field compared to South Korea and Japan. Major differences exist between Member States with Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland and Sweden in the lead. Where competition is still weak, the Commission will closely monitor evolution of the market and will intervene where necessary. Viviane Reding recalled that "structural funds may be used in geographic areas where networking is difficult, such as the very outlying regions, mountainous areas and islands". Finally, despite the continued decline in the turnover of the fixed telephony sector, there has been an increase in the number of players entering the market this year for the first time.
These positive results must not make one forget the delays in transposition and implementation of the regulatory framework. Five Member States (Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Czech Republic and Estonia) have not yet fully transposed the European regulation into national primary legislation. The Commission has therefore opened infringement procedure against Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg which have not notified their legislative provisions. Also, eight Member States (Spain, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Cyprus) have still to adopt secondary legislation. Spain and France have already been the subject of infringement procedure. Not only for primary legislation but also for secondary legislation, the Commission is preparing to initiate proceedings regarding the above new Member States.
The independence of the national regulators is another area in which improvements must be made. The performance of national markets is proportional to the quality of the legal framework set in place by the Member States, especially that which directly concerns the national regulatory authorities. These authorities must be independent of all commercial interests and all outside interference. "National regulators are not fully independent", Viviane Reding acknowledged. The report shows that the national regulatory authorities do not always have the powers and resources needed to successfully carry out their analyses and market surveillance activities, or to resolve potential conflicts. The report is available on the DG Information Society website.