Reding’s Review: some indication of the timetable

Posted on June 5, 2007 | Filed Under communication technologies 

Small talk while the clock keeps ticking“Let me now give you all some indication of the timetable in relation to the review. … My intention is to be able to come with a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and the Council at the end of 2006.”

Viviane Reding in a Speech on “The review of the regulatory framework for e-Communications”, 15 September 2005.

“I intend to conclude the Review by the end of this year [2006] with concrete legislative proposals … I also propose, in close cooperation with Commissioner Kroes, to revise, by the end of the year [2006], the markets listed in the Commission Recommendation on Relevant Markets of 2003.”

Viviane Reding, Speech “The Review 2006 of EU Telecom rules”, 27 June 2006

“Dies wird dann in die Vorschläge zur Änderung des Rechtsrahmens einfließen, die ich in der ersten Jahreshälfte 2007 vorlegen möchte.” (This will then be reflected in the legislative proposals that I intend to submit in the first half of 2007)

Viviane Reding, Speech “Zur Reform des EU-Rechtsrahmens”, Berlin, 23 Nov 2006

“At the end of October [2007], I will publish concrete legislative proposals …”

Viviane Reding, Speech “Why Greece needs broadband, Athens, 1 June 2007

So much for the timetable in the Commissioner’s own words. In her speech in Athens last week she finally acknowledged publicly that the plan to come forward with the concrete legislative proposals before the summer will not be met. In the meantime, the direction of the proposals becomes clearer:

  • “functional” (not: “structural”) separation will be introduced as an additional remedy that regulators can choose if all the present remedies cannot ensure effective competition;
  • the one and only “truly independent and supranational European institution”, the European Commission (I am not making this up, these are Commissioner Reding’s words, taken from her Speech in Athens), will have increased powers (what a surprise!) - enhanced veto-powers for the Commission in the “Article 7 procedures” are to be expected, so that the Commission can have the final word on all remedy-decisions;
  • and in addition there will be some sort of “federal” European regulatory body, maybe similar to the system of the European Central Bank, where the “talking heads” of national regulators may find their own niche to be important.

At present, of course this is only guesswork - but still there are already a few people said to be “actively waiting” for interesting jobs at the “Euro-regulator”. Well, if it didn’t work out at the ITU, why not go for the European level!

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One Response to “Reding’s Review: some indication of the timetable”

  1. Something substantially simpler? A “Superagency” for peer-review : contentandcarrier on September 20th, 2007 3:51 pm

    […] known as the “end of 2006″ and the “first half of 2007″ - for details see this post) will turn out to be 13 November 2007: the date when Commissioner Reding will finally unveil the […]

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