Brussels, 05/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 3 June, Commissioner Viviane Reding commented at the European Parliament industry committee on certain key issues on the agenda of the DG for information society and media. Several MEPs expressed their support for a possible data roaming regulation for SMS and mobile internet, while others called for stricter rules on data protection in the field of electronic communications. Opinions differed somewhat between the commissioner and MEPs regarding the European Commission's proposal to create a European telecommunications authority.
Parliament's examination of reform proposals on the telecoms package has, according to Viviane Reding, so far provided a “very solid basis for negotiations”. She nonetheless expressed some reservation about the proposal from Pilar del Castillo (EPP-ED, Spain), who is rapporteur on this issue, to create a Body of European Regulators in Telecoms (BERT) to replace the European telecom authority (see EUROPE 9658). The Commissioner has “serious doubts about the sustainability of the proposed budgetary provisions”, which provide for BERT to receive two-third financing from natural regulatory authorities (NRAs). “A Community body should not be dependent on national regulatory authorities”, she explained. The idea is to have a European regulator with national authorities as its basis, Ms del Castillo said in response to this, assuring that the body would be independent.
On the subject of roaming tariffs, “the moment of truth” will come in mid-July, when the Commission will update its data on roaming tariffs for vocal calls and data, the commissioner stressed, pointing out that the Commission had set a 1 July ultimatum for operators to review their tariffs downward. Ms Reding went on, moreover, to announce a communication and an impact assessment on the issue for this autumn but said that, at this stage, she could not say whether she would add a legislative proposal to that, as figures had to be studied first. Paul Rübig (EPP-ED, Austria), rapporteur on the subject, was satisfied with the results achieved by the regulation on vocal calls. “In every member state, there is at least one provider below the maximum prices”, he was pleased to note. Umberto Guidoni (GUE/NGL, Italy) said “the roaming regulation proved that the market alone was not able to ensure competition”. Patrizia Toia (ALDE, Italy), assured the commissioner of the Parliament's support for completion of her work. “We cannot just sit back and expect the operators to regulate themselves”, she stressed. On the subject of the rumours of violation of private data by Deutsche Telekom, Rebecca Harms (Greens/EFA, Germany) and other German MEPs expressed doubt about the effectiveness of the current legislation on data protection. Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (ALDE, Germany) said the “current spying scandal shows that our data protection legislation is lagging behind the technical possibilities”. (I.L.)