Subject files - European single market for electronic communications and to achieve a connected continent - Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Despite efforts over the last ten years to liberalise and integrate the telecommunications market, Europe is still fragmented into 28 separate national communications markets, each with a limited number of players. To overcome this problem, in September 2013 the Commission has put forward a package of proposals to reform the European telecoms market, including a proposal for a regulation. This current patchy scenario raises barriers and increases the costs for operators wanting to provide cross-border services thereby impeding their expansion. EU rules on, for example, authorisations, regulatory conditions, spectrum assignment and consumer protection are implemented in diverging ways. As a consequence, while no operator is present in more than half of the Member States at best, overall more than 200 operators serve a market of 510 million of customers. This stands in stark contrast with the US or China who have one single market of 330 and 1400 million customers respectively, served by four to five large operators, with one legislation, one licensing system, and one spectrum policy. The untapped potential of an EU single market in electronic communications is estimated at up to 0.9% GDP, or EUR 110 billion per year. The benefits from a single market for business communication services alone amount to almost EUR 90 billion per year. To benefit from this untapped potential the proposed regulation builds upon and advances the main directives of 2002 governing the provision of electronic communications, as amended in 2009, by introducing directly applicable legislative provisions which shall operate in conjunction with the provisions of the existing legislative package.

 

On 23 January 2014, the IMCO Committee adopted the draft opinion of Mr Harbour on the proposed regulation on a European single market for electronic communications. The opinion diverts significantly from the Commission's original approach of fully harmonising consumer rights provisions through the regulation and instead introduces valuable new provisions through amending the Universal Services and Users' Rights Directive.

 

Rapporteur: Malcolm Harbour (ECR)

 

The shadow rapporteurs are: Regina Bastos (EPP), Bernadette Vergnaud (S&D), Jürgen Creutzmann (ALDE) and Christian Engström (Greens).