Brussels, 07/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - European rules on electronic communications have freed up markets, but much remains to be done. Thus says the progress report, published on Tuesday by the Commission, two years after the regulatory framework came into effect, 25 July 2003 (see EUROPE 8399). The report welcomes the fact that the regular economic analysis by EU Member States and the European Commission of competition in 18 electronic communications markets and Commission scrutiny of draft national rules are paving the way to free markets, regulated solely by competition law. Under Article 7 of the regulatory framework, each of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) is required to perform regular competition-law based analyses of their domestic markets and to remedy market failures such as excessive pricing or denying a competitor access to a network. National market analyses should be submitted to the Commission, which has to authorise Member States' proposed measures. As of 30 September 2005, sixteen Member States had noted no effective competition on one or more of the 18 electronic communications markets and had taken steps to boost competition. Five others had found only partial competition on one or more of these markets and had imposed remedies where it was lacking. Of the 152 markets analysed (out of a total of 450), 123 were not competitive, 19 were fully competitive and 10 partially competitive. Nine Member States, however, had still not submitted their analyses to the Commission, thereby obliging the Commission to initiate infringement proceedings last October. By 7 February, only Belgium, Latvia and Poland had failed to respond to Commission injunctions.
The framework on electronic communications has helped bring about more consistency, mainly with regard to where and when regulatory remedies are imposed on operators, states the report. Remedies are imposed in close cooperation with national regulators to ensure that they are appropriate and as consistent as possible, but the details of the chosen remedies may still vary from one Member State to another, the Commission goes on. The report also stresses that the consultation mechanism has brought improved transparency for all the players in the market.
The regulatory framework is currently being updated by the Commission which intends to review the list of markets susceptible to regulation, so as to keep pace with technological progress and market developments. After considering the views of interested parties (see EUROPE 9124), it will put forward a new proposal before the end of the year. As part of this procedure, Commissioner Viviane Reding will meet the regulating authorities of the 25 Member States on Wednesday in Paris to debate the process.
EUROPE will return to this topic. (The report can be consulted at: http: //europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ecomm/article_7_en.htm).