The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) has approved an updated version of the proposed Electronic Communications Code, announcing that the revised rules will give citizens better access to telephone and internet networks. In a statement, the parliament said one of the new measures committee MEPs agreed on is a requirement for EU operators to justify the charging of additional fees to users calling from mobiles or landlines to another EU member state. The vote to cap call charges between member states at the price of domestic calls follows the abolition of roaming charges for using a mobile phone abroad earlier this year. "The regulating of intra-EU calls is the next logical step and will demonstrate our will to make steady improvements for the citizens and businesses of Europe," said MEP Pilar del Castillo, rapporteur on the bill. The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) would be tasked with setting out guidelines on how service providers could recover the costs they incur in other ways.
The draft bill also outlined stricter conditions for so-called co-investment, with operators’ investment plans needing to meet harsher criteria before national watchdogs can roll back regulations. The EC’s initial proposal on co-investment was designed to help the EU meet its connectivity goals by lightening regulation of operators if they proved they were investing in network infrastructure with rivals.
A “reverse 112 system” was also introduced by committee MEPs, enabling national authorities to alert citizens in the event of imminent major emergencies and disasters, such as a terrorist attack or a natural catastrophe, using geo-localisation tools. The system aims to reduce casualties by instructing people on what to do if they are in danger, said the parliament.
Other measures required by MEPs include the mandatory use of end-to-end encryption to protect the confidentiality of communications and for radio spectrum licences to last 25 years to incentivise investments. Finally, companies providing electronic communications services in more than one member state will benefit from a home market regime, that is, the same conditions as local companies.
The bill must be agreed in three-way trialogue negotiations with the EC and national governments before it can go into effect. Informal negotiations with EU ministers are expected to start as soon as the negotiating mandate has been approved.
Separately, the committee approved another bill on changes to Berec, effectively rejecting the EC’s proposal to upgrade the body’s legal status and give it a 75 percent budget increase. MEP Evzen Tosenovsky, rapporteur on the bill, told Euractiv that the EC’s proposal would have given the EU executive too much power over national regulators. “My main goal was to safeguard the independence of national regulatory authorities,” he said.
