TELECOMS PACKAGE : COR'S RAPPORTEUR AN 'ADVOCATE FOR BROADCASTERS'.

Keep roaming and throw out the rest of the telecoms package: thus concludes the rapporteur for the EU Committee of the Regions, Frank Zimmermann (S&D, Germany), in his opinion on the single market for electronic communications.

For the CoR rapporteur, roaming charges should be abolished in July 2014, as proposed by the European Commission. This is a more radical position than that adopted by the European Parliament's rapporteur, who recommends 2016. On the other hand, Zimmermann states clearly what member states, most MEPs and operators are saying in a more roundabout way: all the rest of the telecoms package "comes too soon" and has not been "sufficiently prepared".

He consequently calls on the Commission to review its work and come back with new proposals during the next legislature. Internet neutrality, European management of radio frequencies and access to the fixed broadband network: "all of that is problematic".

On radio frequencies...