National Regulators Mull Need for EU-Level Telecom Supervisor
The EC may create a “European FCC” to harmonize telecom rules across the 27 EU nations. National regulatory authorities (NRAs) have until mid-Feb. to react to Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding’s proposal. NRAs are said to be split over creating a super-regulator; The head of their official body, European Regulators Group (ERG), said Tues. it’s too soon to tell.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Since new telecom rules took effect, the EC has endured woes from their slow adoption and uneven use of competition remedies. Along with many market players, the EC dislikes in consistency in applying the e-communications regulatory framework (NRF), Reding said in a Nov. 30 letter to the ERG. As it prepares to unveil proposed changes to the NRF later this year, the EC is eyeing ways to standardize, as much as possible, NRA decisions to smooth internal market glitches.
Reding wants to modify the NRF to authorize the EC to ask an NRA to replace an inappropriate antitrust remedy with a more functional one, and to analyze markets and/or set remedies within reasonable time-frames, she wrote. The ERG backs more harmonized regulation, but its structure tilts against consistent enforcement, she said. ERG has trouble arriving at “ambitious” common positions and when it does so, they have no legal force, she said.
The EC could rely on the ERG and national regulators to enhance consistency, Reding said. But “concrete proposals are needed for new institutional arrangements that would transform the ERG into a more efficient and more accountable permanent body with independent powers,” she wrote. The “enhanced ERG” -- or, as some dub it, the “European FCC"-- would have to be created by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers.
The new scheme would replace today’s, in which NRAs assess telecom markets in their countries and set preemptive competition rules as needed, with EC oversight -- and veto power in cases of market analyses. Reding asked NRAs to suggest how to replace the system with a new relationship between the ERG and NRAs, how to run an enhanced ERG and assure its independence and to whom and how it should be accountable.
The U.K., Spain, Italy, Germany and France back a beefier ERG; Poland and Denmark have concerns about it, French business paper Les Echos reported this week. ERG Chmn. Roberto Viola confirmed his group hopes to respond to Reding’s letter by mid-Feb., but “at this stage it is premature to draw any conclusions.” ERG’s internal debate “is open and we will strive, as usual, to reach a common position shared by all members,” Viola told us. Variances in viewpoint assigned to specific NRAs’ positions don’t accurately reflect the discussion, he said. Viola stressed that ERG members are committed to promoting harmonized regulatory practices.
The key question is not who is best suited to achieve harmonization of telecom rules but what standardization is needed, said a European Telecom Network Operators’ Assn. (ETNO) spokesman. ETNO members -- many are incumbents -- back better harmonization of processes and principles, but oppose a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach, he said.
With competition rising regulatory framework review’s goal should be to spur investment in new access networks, the spokesman said. ETNO companies want an accelerated shift from preemptive, sector-specific rules to competition law, but fear creation of a new administrative layer could delay the deregulatory trend.