Viviane Reding, the Telecoms Commissioner, has criticised the
plan, saying that the alternative body would not be able to act
quickly enough.
The Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) of the
Parliament approved a report by Spanish socialist MEP Pilar del
Castillo which proposes the new agency, the Body of European
Regulators in Telecommunications (BERT) as an alternative to the
Commission's proposed European Telecoms Market Authority
(ETMA).
The Commission announced its proposals for ETMA last November,
when it said a pan-European body was needed to break the
government-endorsed stranglehold that some dominant operators still
had.
"Dominant telecoms operators, often still protected by
government authorities, remain in control of critical market
segments, especially of the broadband market," said Reding in
November. "This restricts consumers' freedom of choice."
De Castillo said, though, that the ETMA placed too much power in
its own hands. "The objective of BERT is to develop in a flexible,
efficient and non bureaucratic way prime conditions for the telecom
market so that the latter may operate solely under general
competition law," she said. "Let's not create a cumbersome body
which lobbies for its own existence."
In de Castillo's report she said that BERT would allow national
regulators (NRAs) to retain their role in regulation.
"The current balance of power between the Commission (‘guardian’
of markets definition and significant market power designation) and
NRAs (responsible for implementation at local level) has worked
reasonably well. However, there is room for improving the
consistency both regarding national decisions with internal market
impact and the application of remedies," she wrote.
"The most appropriate means to ensure consistency and
effectiveness in a system where competences are distributed is
through co-regulation. Only with such a cooperative and
collaborative approach between the Commission and NRAs can results
be achieved without altering the delicate institutional balance of
powers or undermining the subsidiarity elements of the regulation.
The Commission should play more the role of arbitrator and
facilitator rather that of judge or sanction-taker," said the
report.
It is exactly this co-regulation that attracted criticism from
Reding after the vote. "Businesses and consumers in Europe are
interested in results, not in lengthy procedures," said Reding. "I
have doubts whether BERT and the heavy Article 7-procedure now
created will be able to deliver coherent regulatory responses to
the regulatory obstacles still far too present in Europe's single
telecoms market. Questions remain especially as regards the
financing of the new Body as well as its capability to arrive
swiftly and efficiently at common positions."
Unlike ETMA, BERT would not be funded directly out of European
Commission funds but by the national regulators themselves.
The committee's proposal will go before the full Parliament in
September, then before the Council of Telecoms Ministers in
November, at which point it could become law.
The creation of a new regulatory body is just one aspect of a
package of telecoms reforms. The Parliament's ITRE Committee and
Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) were
largely in agreement with other Commission-proposed reforms,
including granting national regulators the right to force incumbent
operators to separate their network and service businesses.
The Committees also agreed with Commission proposals to enhance
transparency of billing and pricing and to improve number
portability when consumers switch service providers.
