current success and future support of european cinema

Posted on May 26, 2008 | Filed Under competition/mergers/state aid

palmdorcannes.jpgCommissioner Reding will have heard the news of the EU-funded (it got €30,000 through the MEDIA program) film “Entre Les Murs” directed by Laurent Cantet winning the Pame d’Or in Cannes with satisfaction. But also the overall performance of the european contributions which where all funded through MEDIA as well is impressive: Grand Prix runner-up prize for Gomorrah by Matteo Garrone, Jury prize for Il Divo by Paolo Sorrentino and best screenplay for Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne for The Silence of Lorna (for details on the films see the festival’s homepage).

In the light of these achievements Reding’s joint proposal with Commissioner Kroes to once again extend the current regime for state aid for film support originally laid down in 2001 (see the Commission’s 2001 Communication on certain legal aspects relating to cinematographic and other audiovisual works) seems worthy of being supported: “Three more years! Three more years!”

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author: gregor | Permalink | | Print This Article | Leave a Comment

Roaming consultation: please tell us what you think (after we made up our mind?)

Posted on May 11, 2008 | Filed Under communication technologies

_antennen_leop2a.jpgThe Commission is having a consultation exercise again, this time on the functioning of the roaming regulation and its possible extension to SMS and data roaming services (consultation website, consultation document). Comments are due by 2 July 2008. Previously, Commissioner Reding has, on several occasions, pointed out that she would decide by 1 July 2008, whether regulation of data roaming and SMS would be necessary, and she has also given a clear indication of what she expects operators to do:

for SMS:

  • retail price for sending a text message may be “2 or 3 cents more expensive than sending an SMS domestically”

for data roaming:

  1. improving transparency, warning message for consumers when a given limit is reached;
  2. at least one interesting “EU-roaming-package” that allows consumers to download data throughout the 27 EU countries at the same price than domestically, subject only to a single competitive additional charge;
  3. a credible and competition-neutral reduction of wholesale tariffs (wholesale rates of 50 or 25 Eurocent per 1 Megabyte “indicate the level at which the Commission could consider pitching regulation”)

“The deadline is 1 July”, Reding said. The market situation on that date will be considered when the Commission moves to regulate (or not) data roaming, and so input from the consultation could be taken into account. Still, the question of whether or not these services will be regulated has been answered even before the consultation started: if the conditions laid down by Ms Reding are not met, then there will be a move towards regulation (never mind what the consultation may bring).

PS: ETNO, the incumbent operators organisation, has already indicated its members will not comply with Reding’s targets and deadline. And Reding (“I have no appetite at all for regulating again”) will certainly also follow the roaming case at the ECJ, before going into retail price regulation again.

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author: hans peter | Permalink | | Print This Article | Leave a Comment

The Super-Agency as Muppet: how EECMA may become Bert

Posted on May 1, 2008 | Filed Under communication technologies

Ernie and BertIt might be a sublime joke of European Parliament rapporteur Pilar del Castillo Vera: instead of the new “Superagency” proposed by the Commission, called European Electronic Communications Market Authority (with the cumbersome abbreviation “EECMA”), in her draft report on the proposed regulation she comes forward with the idea to establish a “Body of European Regulators in Telecom” (shortly: “BERT”) instead. This new “body” would be a slightly pimped-up version of the current ERG, to serve as a formal advisory body to the Commission (and also to assist the European Parliament). And it would self-destruct (”cease to exist”) after five-years (unless Commission, Council and Parliament find “that market conditions have not evolved to the extent that a body of regulators is no longer necessary”).

Bert, of course, is famous as a character of Sesame Street. Wikipedia has the following characterization: “Bert, though intelligent, is also grumpy, boring and easily frustrated.” Could this also describe the pimped-up ERG?

In the draft report, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) also would remain a separate entity , and not be included in the Super-Agency as the Commission had proposed (I am sure Greece as host country of ENISA will support this view, as will those working for ENISA on the sunny island of Crete). A small proposal from me would be to rename ENISA, maybe to be called European Regulatory Network for Internet Emergencies, or “ERNIE” - so we could have BERT and ERNIE as a strong team of EU-Muppets for network regulation and safety issues.

PS: There is also a draft report of the European Parliament on the proposal for amending the Framework, Access and Authorisation-Directives, drawn up by Catherine Trautmann, who also wants to scale down Commission powers vis-a-vis national regulators. She proposes a dispute resolution (or co-regulation) procedure in remedy-cases under Article 7 (new Article 7a) of the framework directive, rather than the veto the Commission wants. Only if BERT and the Commission agree, an NRA could be requested to amend a draft measure. Functional separation would be subject to agreement between BERT and the Commission. For spectrum policy, the draft report would provide maybe more than the Commisison dreamt of: the possibility to conduct international negotiations, such as in the WRC or RRCs (under a mandate by Council and Parliament).

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author: hans peter | Permalink | | Print This Article | 6 Comments