EU Regulators Expected to Back Stronger Role for Themselves
European telecom authorities seem to back creation of an EU-level regulator, but their final stance won’t be known until later this month. The European Regulators Group (ERG) is mulling a proposal by Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding to remake the body of national agencies into an independent “European FCC” (CD Jan 31 p4). In a carefully worded Fri. statement, the group welcomed Reding’s idea of a beefed-up network of independent regulators but urged the EC to examine its legal feasibility.
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As part of its extensive review of the e-communication regulatory framework, the EC is looking for ways to apply telecom rules more consistently across the 27 EU countries. It could give itself a veto over competition remedies set by national regulators or set up an “ERG with teeth,” she told regulators in a Nov. 30 letter. She wants comments by mid- Feb.
ERG members unanimously back Reding’s move for greater consistency and a common regulatory approach across borders, the group said Fri. Regulators have been urging the EC to “fully exploit” the ERG’s potential as an advisory body and to work more closely with it, they said. Those steps “will go a long way to achieving the desired consistency of regulatory remedies” without undermining the principle that the EU won’t act beyond its exclusive jurisdiction unless it’s more effective than state or local action, the ERG said.
In the long run, however, the anticipated evolution of e-communications markets and technologies requires an effective “mutual coordination system,” the ERG said. It welcomes Reding’s weighing of an “institutional framework which has at its core a strengthened network of independent national regulators that provides an effective and non- bureaucratic coordination mechanism.” But it urged the EC to check the plan’s legal ramifications, noting that any boost in ERG powers is subject to approval by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers.
ERG Chmn. Roberto Viola’s “positive signal” that the group wants to assume a stronger European responsibility came in a Fri. call to Reding, her spokesman told us. But because the response isn’t complete, the Commission won’t speculate on it, he said. “There is a lot of positive will among many national telecom regulators to make a step towards completing the internal market and an institutional reform which brings about a strengthened network of independent regulators,” the spokesman said: “Only the text of the ERG response itself will tell us how far the ERG is prepared to go.”
Reding meet next week with a troika of past and current ERG chairmen. Her proposal for revisions to the e- communications regulatory framework goes to the EP and Council in July, the spokesman said.