EU Telcos Urge Digital Investment for New Belgian EU Presidency
The new Belgian EU Presidency must focus on telecommunications and competition, mobile operators and competitive telcos said Tuesday. Belgium's presidency began Monday and goes through June 30. Its program includes making progress on the EU's green and digital transitions, supporting…
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efforts toward achieving climate neutrality and digital leadership. The presidency will "prioritise a human-centred approach to the digital transformation, with particular attention to algorithmic transparency and virtual identity protection," especially in connection with AI. Other key focuses include: (1) Digital inclusivity, particularly negotiations on the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA); (2) a "joint approach to 'active cyber protection,'" such as by boosting proactive measures for preventing, detecting, monitoring and abating network security breaches across the EU; and (3) stronger international cooperation via cyber diplomacy. The GSMA urged the presidency to "work with the telecoms industry to ensure an investment culture in digital infrastructure to carry through the region's technological and economic ambitions, addressing market fragmentation and removing the regulatory barriers that hamper progress." Delivering the GIA will go a long way toward removing hurdles to buildout of very high capacity networks, it said. The GSMA said it expects the European Commission will publish a white paper on a planned digital networks act, which will explore the potential for measures to create a "true single market" for telecom. The European Competitive Telecommunications Association also wants the GIA to "come to a good end taking into account our concerns," Director General Luc Hindryckx said in an email. As for the planned digital networks act, he said, the telecom sector is the "linchpin" of social and economic dynamics in the 21st Century, enabling universal participation in digital society by ensuring affordable connectivity for all. Anchored in a pro-competitive legal framework for e-communications, the European model has consistently shown its effectiveness and "should be maintained."