Bangemann to push for creation of EU telecoms industry watchdog

Date: 11/03/1999

By Peter Chapman

INDUSTRY Commissioner Martin Bangemann is set to revive calls for a European regulatory authority to police the Union's telecoms markets.

The proposal for a EU watchdog to "coordinate and monitor actions taken at a national level" is one of a slate of possible measures outlined in a European Commission paper due to be adopted later this month.

The draft report says that such a body could be modelled on agencies which already exist in other sectors such as the European Medicines Evaluation Agency.

"A variety of solutions ranging from an independent European agency to a forum bringing together the national regulators and national expertise can be envisaged," adds the paper.

Bangemann is keen to streamline telecoms regulation to keep up with the fast pace of developments such as the much-touted 'convergence' of the telecoms, information technology and media sectors.

The telecoms report forms part of the Commission's follow-up to last year's Green Paper on convergence. Bangemann and Audio-visual Comm- issioner Marcelino Oreja published the responses to the paper this week. Oreja is also expected to outline his plans for regulating the new audio-visual services which are being developed to take advantage of digital technology later this year.

Moves to create an EU regulatory body for the telecoms sector have foundered in the past because of opposition from member states anxious to retain their influence over the behaviour of former state monopolies.

But the Commission paper argues that better coordination at European level is needed alongside moves to give member states greater scope to decide for themselves how to implement future regulations in the sector.

The institution says it plans a more flexible telecoms regime based on a new 'framework' directive which would confine itself to setting out basic principles and objectives at EU level.

It would also allow specific, but technologically neutral, legislation to be adopted in fields such as authorisation and licensing, consumer protection, data protection and privacy, tariff principles and price transparency. The report says it could be drawn from existing rules, "suitably adapted" to take account of developments in technology.

The Commission is, however, likely to disappoint those in the industry who have been calling for the scrapping of an existing raft of 'open network provision' rules aimed at forcing the old monopolies to open up their networks.

Some of the former monopolies have called for the sector to be regulated mainly by EU competition rules, arguing that competition has now begun to eat away the old monopolies' market power.

But the Commission paper warns that any transition to the increased use of competition rules should not be rushed, adding: "It would be counterproductive to remove existing legislation prematurely, only to create the possibility for operators to extend their strong or dominant position."