11 October 2017
ITRE Committee today approved two reports on EU telecommunications reform. Czech MEP Evžen Tošenovský was steering the negotiations on Parliament’s position as rapporteur for BEREC regulation and simultaneously followed the Electronic Communications Code for the ECR Group.
ITRE Committee today approved two reports on EU telecommunications reform. Czech MEP Evžen Tošenovský was steering the negotiations on Parliament’s position as rapporteur for BEREC regulation and simultaneously followed the Electronic Communications Code for the ECR Group.
Mr Tošenovský said on Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC): “My main goal was to safeguard the independence of national regulators. From the start, I opposed the Commission’s proposal to merge both BEREC and supporting BEREC Office into one single agency and I am glad that I managed to convince other political groups on this approach.”
“I believe that with BEREC’s upgraded status and the revised rules on the BEREC Office aligned with the inter-institutional agreement on EU agencies, both bodies will be more efficient and better fit for the new task assigned to them by the Code,” he added.
ECR also broadly supported modernised rules in the Electronic Communications Code beneficial for businesses and consumers, including the pro-investment measures to make coverage of very high capacity networks across Europe a reality.
However, Evžen Tošenovský has opposed rapporteur’s line on management of radio spectrum, Commission’s veto over the decisions of national regulators or on the general authorisation.
He explained: “We must fully respect the principle of subsidiarity and the reality of 28 diverse situations. It is important that member states and their regulatory authorities remain responsible for their telecommunications markets and consumers.”