EU ready to unveil super regulator plans

The European Commission is expected to push forward with proposals to create a single European telecoms regulator this week.

Still buoyant from her victory over mobile roaming charges, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, is expected to detail plans for greater powers for the EC in the form of an independent Europe-wide regulatory body.

An announcement is expected as early as Tuesday.

Last year, the Commissioner hinted at her plans, saying, “The most effective way to achieve a real level playing field for telecom operators across the EU would, of course, be to create an independent European telecom regulator that would work together with national regulators.”

Reding believes the implementation of greater powers at an EC level would allow the Commission to ensure consistency in the remedies proposed by national regulators to enhance competition in markets dominated by one or more operators. New legislation would also cut the time in which regulators must act, a major issue in several member states.

However, expected proposals to allow the super regulator to force operators with a dominant market position to separate its networks and services divisions, are not expected to sit well with the incumbent carriers.

Meanwhile, the European Regulators Group (ERG), which is comprised of the 27 national regulators, is understood to have written to Reding in disagreement with her plans. Given the membership of the ERG, the organisation would make an ideal body to be turned into the super regulator, moving beyond an advisory capacity into enforcement of regulation.

Reding said previously that the national regulators could continue to exist after the proposed reforms but would be required to work closely with the commission.