"Today's vote is good news for European consumers," said Viviane
Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner. "The European Parliament has today
voted in favour of a strong and competitive Single Telecoms Market without
borders for cross-border services, competition and investment in Europe. This
will level the playing field for telecoms operators in Europe, enhance legal
certainty, and broaden consumer choice."
the
European Parliament today voted in favour of establishing a European telecoms
regulator.
new body will be
financed from the EU budget in order to strengthen its independence and to
ensure equality among national regulators.
I strongly welcome the European Parliament's support for adding the new
remedy of functional separation – which requires an incumbent
operator to separate its network infrastructure from its services branch –
to the toolbox of national regulators. This last-resort remedy has the capacity
to rapidly improve competition in markets while maintaining incentives for
investment in new networks, as shown in the UK where it has already been
implemented. The Parliament's vote will contribute legal certainty to countries
where functional separation is already under discussion, especially Sweden,
Poland and Greece."
it has clearly rejected all calls for 'regulatory holidays',
27 November 2008: the Council could reach a first political agreement
on the EU Telecoms Reform.