An EC proposal to extend its veto power over national telecom mar...
An EC proposal to extend its veto power over national telecom market definitions and analyses to include competition remedies to make enforcement more consistent got mixed reviews Fri. at the European Competitive Telecom Assn. (ECTA) regulatory forum in Brussels.…
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The move is part of Commission review of the e-communications regulatory framework. National regulators, not surprisingly, criticized the idea. A telecom users’ representative said it could help keep regulators from straying far off course. The European Regulators Group (ERG) sees need for the veto, said Gary Healy, dir.-market development for Irish regulator COMREG. The veto raises “turf” issues about whether the EC or national regulators are better suited to address local telecom markets. Legal vulnerabilities could arise if the EC isn’t made accountable for vetoing NRAs. And subjecting remedies to potential veto may make them rigid, Healy said. Instead, regulators are collaborating to find consistency, he said. This is the 2nd time the EC has tried to grab veto power over remedies, Iris Hensler-Unger, vp of German regulator BNetzA, told us. Member nations rejected the idea in 2002 and the situation hasn’t changed since, she said. BNetzA also opposes EC Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding’s concept of an EU super-regulator, she said. The agency “much favors harmonization,” she said, provided it’s between member states. The International Telecom Users Group (INTUG) doesn’t have a formal position on an EC veto, but Vice Chmn. Nick White told us the Commission needs a way to speed imposition of competition remedies. INTUG members, who are business users, fear regulatory holidays like the one Deutsche Telekom wants. The EC should have a better way to stop an NRA headed that way than slow-moving infringement proceedings in the European Court of Justice, White said. The EC Art. 7 Task Force has reviewed 500-plus NRA analyses of 18 specific telecom markets’ competitiveness, said Vivi Michou, who heads the Information Society Directorate- General’s communications services, policy & regulatory framework section. Conclusions from the massive effort: (1) Full, effective enforcement of remedies is needed. (2) So is greater consistency on which remedies are imposed and how.