Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and services"

(2001/C 123/12)

On 25 October 2000 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 7 December 2000. The rapporteur was Mr Lagerholm.

At its 378th plenary session on 24 and 25 January 2001 (meeting of 24 January) the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion with 79 votes in favour and one abstention.

1. The Commission's Proposal

1.1. The proposed directive is part of a new regulatory framework for all transfer networks and services, designed to secure the competitiveness of the electronic communications market. On the basis of the proposed Directive on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services(1), the present proposal is intended to replace the current directive 97/13/EC(2) on a common framework for general authorisations and individual licences in the field of telecommunications services. In its 1999 Communications Report(3) the Commission expressed serious misgivings regarding the transposition of the directive.

1.2. In the Community, there is at present no harmonised approach to authorising market entry for communications service providers, but fifteen very different national regimes. Moreover, the incipient development of a pan-European service should be actively supported. An efficient, smoothly operating single market can be achieved by means of thorough simplification of individual Member States' rules and regulations.

1.3. The present proposal intends to cover all electronic communications services and networks under a general authorisation and to limit the use of specific rights to the assignment of radio frequencies and numbers only. It restricts the number of conditions which may be imposed on service providers and aims to ensure that no information is required as a prior condition for market entry and that a systematic verification of compliance with conditions attached to authorisations is confined to those conditions for which this is objectively justified.

1.4. By simplifying the procedures, the administration costs would be considerably reduced. The proposed directive limits charges imposed on service providers to administrative costs only with the requirement for Member States to publish such costs; it also foresees an adjustment of charges.

1.5. Fees for spectrum and number usage are allowed if the principles of non-discrimination, transparency, objective justification and proportionality are adhered to and are in keeping with policy objectives regarding the development of innovative services and competition. The CEPT should continue to play a key role in the harmonisation of the assignment of radio frequencies.

2. Comments

2.1. In its Opinion on the 1999 Communications Review the Committee stated its view that "harmonisation of licensing conditions in both formal and practical terms is needed. The system should be based on general authorisations except where the issue concerns access to frequencies and numbers. Accordingly, harmonisation should not lead to the introduction of a more burdensome regulatory regime in markets where, for example, general authorisations do not require any pre-registration".

2.2. The ESC welcomes the proposed Directive, which it considers well balanced.

2.3. The ESC is pleased that the proposal addresses the issue of fundamental licensing motives. As the Commission points out, licensing has in some cases become very costly without basically benefiting end-users. A single European market can only be achieved if licensing is harmonised at a low level of intervention. That has proved effective in several Member States.

2.4. It is important that conditions for the authorisation of operations do not include non sector-specific obligations. The Committee is pleased to see that this is explicitly stated in Article 6 of the Directive and also welcomes recital 14's specification that it is not necessary to require systematic and regular proof of compliance with all conditions. This can be seen as a positive step towards reducing the burden the rules place on companies.

2.5. The ESC agrees with the Commission that licences should only be used in the case of scarce radio spectrum and telephone numbers, and that administrative charges should be set so as to cover only those administrative costs that are incurred under the proposed minimal regulation. There seems to be growing concern that IT users will be forced to contribute to spectrum licensing costs, which can significantly exceed administrative costs besides being totally unconnected with the outcome at auction.

2.6. The proposed Authorisations Directive should, in the Committee's view, be amended so as to explicitly prohibit the charging of one-time fees that are not used for purposes which can boost spectrum efficiency or are not part of an auction procedure or some other system in which the price is used as a means to achieve efficient radio spectrum allocation.

Brussels, 24 January 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke Frerichs

(1) COM(2000) 393 final.

(2) European Parliament and Council Directive of 10 April 1997: OJ L 117, 7.5.1997.

(3) Towards a new framework for Electronic Communications infrastructure and associated services - The 1999 Communications Review COM(1999) 539 final, ESC opinion in OJ C 204, 18.7.2000.