TELECOMMUNICATIONS : FRANCE BROKERS POLITICAL DEAL ON TELECOMS PACKAGE.

The French EU Presidency met its goal of brokering a political agreement on the complete telecoms package, meant to improve competition and offer better protection to European consumers, on 27 November in Brussels. The United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands abstained on the regulatory aspects of the reform, and thus did not block a unanimous vote by the 27. The negotiations with the European Parliament and the Commission at second reading nevertheless promise to be tough, given their still widely diverging views at this stage.

"This morning, the member states came to realise that it was vital not to block the process," welcomed Luc Chatel, the French state secretary for industry and consumers, following a session that he had to interrupt to adjust his compromise proposal.

With the European elections in June 2009, the timing was tight. The aim is to reach a deal between the Council, European Parliament and Commission by May.

Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding noted that "there was a constructive crisis at this Council". She still defends her "much more ambitious" proposals, revised three weeks ago on the basis of the EP's vote, on 24 September. The Commission is demanding a veto over national regulators' remedies to competition problems, as well as an EU structure (financed by the Union) for the future European Telecoms Regulators Group (ETRG). The EP position also goes further on strengthening the internal market for telecoms. Reding invited the other two institutions to meet for three-way talks early in December.

Luc Chatel promised to start up conciliation contacts "tomorrow," before handing the matter over to the Czech EU Presidency, on 1 January 2009. "I hope you will be a magician," commented the commissioner.

THREE TEXTS

In fact, the EU now finds itself with three texts: the Commission's, which is also more ambitious on competition and liberalisation of frequency management in the EU, and is backed by the British, the Swedes, the Italians and the Danes. The Belgians and the Italians argued for an ERG with an EU structure but ended up supporting the...