Brussels, 18/06/2008 (Agence Europe) -This Tuesday 17 June, the European Parliament gave its green light to the extension of the mandate of ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency. The MEPs adopted, without amendments and by a very large majority (581 votes in favour, 17 against and 30 abstentions) the report by Angelika Niebler (EPP-ED, Germany) recommending an extension by three years of the mandate of ENISA, until 2012. This extra time will be used to reflect on the future of the agency, the MEPs stressed. Like the Council of Ministers, the Parliament did not go along with the proposal of the European Commission, which wanted to extend the mandate of ENISA by just two years, until 2011, before entrusting network and information security responsibilities to the new European Electronic Communications Market Authority (EECMA). At this stage, neither the member states nor the Parliament are convinced of the need for this new agency in the form proposed by the Commission, as confirmed by the recent "Telecommunications Council" of last Thursday, 12 June (see EUROPE 9681). The rapporteur on the dossier, Pilar del Castillo Vera (EPP-EP, Spain), proposed instead a body of European regulators (BERT), whose role would be to assist the group of European regulators in its duties, rather than to take over the duties of ENISA. Ms del Castillo Vera's report will be voted on during the September penury, at the same time as the three other reports on the "Telecommunications Package" (the Trautman, Harbour and Pleguezuelos reports). (I.L./trans.fl)