On September 20th, 2007, Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, met Nikitas Alexandridis, President of Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission (EETT), the Telecom Regulator of Greece.

Mrs. Reding and Mr. Alexandridis discussed issues concerning the review of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (“Telecom Package”). Mrs. Reding said that the future reformed Telecom Package will help the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA) to more efficiently enforce remedies where competition is not sufficient. NRAs have sometimes had problems to react quick enough to impose remedies. Therefore the European Commission (EC) is considering what can be done at the European level to improve this matter. However, Mrs. Reding further said that the NRAs should remain independent.

The current drafts for the Telecom Package proposed to create a pan European regulatory authority called the “European Electronic Communication Market Authority” (EECMA).  The EECMA would be able to collect information from NRAs, help with technical opinions and have the ability to allocate frequencies for pan-European services. Nevertheless, Viviane Reding suggests NRAs should remain independent and will be reinforced with the Telecom package review.

The creation of the EECMA appears to be a controversial topic: both Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for Competition, and Günter Verheugen, Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, have expressed doubts. Officials from Mrs. Kroes commented that “In the electronic communications sector, granting powers to a community agency to perform competition assessments can only create confusion and impinge on the Commission’s competences”. Officials for Mr. Verheugen also questioned the need for a new agency that would require an extra 110 staff.

Last week, Mrs. Reding met both the President for the Greek EETT and the President for the French NRA Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes (ARCEP). She also delivered a speech at the Belgian Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA). She will moreover be present at the next two European Regulatory Group meetings in Athens and Capri.

Next steps:
October 11th-12th, 2007, ERG meeting, Athens, Greece
October 18th-19th, extraordinary ERG meeting in Capri, Italy
November 13th, 2007, The draft Telecom package should be published

To read the EC Press release on EETT, please click here
To read the EC Press release on ARCEP, please click here
To read article in Financial Times, pleas click here

To read article on EurActive, please click here