COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down measures concerning open internet access and amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users' rights relating to electronic communications networks and services and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union
Date: 2015-10-02
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: Internet, cross-frontier data flow, freedom to provide services, innovation, regulation of telecommunications, single market, telecommunications industry, transmission network, universal service

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 2.10.2015  
COM(2015) 489 final 

2013/0309 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council laying down measures concerning open internet access and amending 
Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users' rights relating to electronic 
communications networks and services and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile 
communications networks within the Union 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

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   EN 

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
2013/0309 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council laying down measures concerning open internet access and amending 
Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users' rights relating to electronic 
communications networks and services and Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile 
communications networks within the Union 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council (document COM(2013) 0627 final – 2013/0309 
(COD): 

12.09.2013. 

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social 
Committee:  

21.01.2014 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

03.04.2014. 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

01.10.2015. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The  objective  of  the  proposal  is  to  move  towards  a  single  market  for  electronic 
communications.  This  should  allow  citizens  and  businesses 
to  access  electronic 
communications services wherever they are provided in the European Union, without cross-
border restrictions or unjustified additional costs. It should also enable companies providing 
electronic communications networks and services to provide and operate these wherever they 
are established or their customers are situated in the EU. 

The Commission proposal contained provisions to tackle particular bottlenecks hindering the 
development  of  the  single  market  for  electronic  communications.  It  provided  for,  in 
particular:  establishing  a  single  EU  authorisation  for  cross-border  providers,  coordinating 
spectrum  assignments,  harmonising  access  products  needed 
to  provide  electronic 
communications, harmonising rules ensuring open internet, harmonising rules to protect end-
users, measures to phase out roaming surcharges, and modifications to the governance of the 
Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications. 

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3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  Council  took  a  firm  position  to  limit  the  scope  of  the  proposal  to  net  neutrality  and 
roaming, and this was confirmed in the negotiations with the European Parliament. It should 
be  noted  that  the  Digital  Single  Market  strategy  announced  by  the  Commission  on  6  May 
2015 makes clear that spectrum will be part of the telecom review to be presented in 2016. It 
is therefore acceptable to limit the scope of the draft regulation to roaming and net neutrality. 
This  choice  takes  into  account  the  clear  indications  from  the  the  European  Council 
conclusions  of  26  June  2015,  that  emphasise  the  importance  of  all  dimensions  of  the 
Commission’s  strategy  and  of  pursuing  an  ambitious  reform  of  the  telecommunications 
framework, including coordinating spectrum more effectively. 

Overall  the  Council’s  position  endorses  the  core  objectives  of  the  Commission  proposal, 
namely to abolish retail roaming surcharges and ensure open internet access while allowing 
innovative  services.  However,  the  Council  makes  some  changes  regarding  how  to  achieve 
these goals. Its amendments involve defining a clear end-date for roaming surcharges while 
ensuring the sustainability of such abolition, in particular by appropriately timing the review 
of  wholesale  roaming  markets  and  establishing  an  appropriate  mechanism  to  address 
exceptional and specific cases where domestic charging models would be unsustainable even 
after  the  review  of  wholesale  roaming  markets.  (These  details  are  to  be  fleshed  out  by 
Commission implementing measures).  

On the open internet, the Commission notes that the Council text ensures the policy objective 
of  the  draft  regulation,  namely  enshrining  the  right  of  every  European  to  access  internet 
content of their choice without discrimination. At the same time the text clarifies that equal 
treatment  of  traffic  allows  for  reasonable  day-to-day  traffic  management  based  on  justified 
objective  technical  requirements  and  independently  of  the  traffic's  origin  or  destination. 
Moreover, the text contains a ban on blocking, throttling and discrimination against specific 
content,  services  or  applications,  or  categories  thereof,  with  three  narrowly  circumscribed 
necessary  exceptions,  namely  for  compliance  with  EU  or  national  laws  or  measures  giving 
effect  to  such  laws,  for  network  security  purposes,  and  for  management  of  temporary  or 
exceptional network congestion. .  

In  addition,  the  text  establishes  that  services  other  than  internet  access  services,  which  are 
optimised  for  specific  content,  applications  or  services,  may  be  provided  under  certain 
conditions. These are that optimisation is necessary to meet the quality requirements of these 
content,  applications  or  services;  that  they  are  not  marketed  or  usable  as  a  substitute  to 
internet  access  services;  that  sufficient  capacity  is  available;  and  that  their  provision  is  not 
detrimental to the quality of internet access services for end-users. 

The  competent  regulatory  authorities  will  have  the  responsibility  and  obligation  to  ensure, 
through monitoring and enforcement action, compliance with the rules of the Regulation and 
that the rights of end-users, including providers of content, services and applications,  are not 
impaired.  

This balanced approach effectively protects the quality of internet access services while not 
stifling  innovation.  Finally,  the  proposal  establishes  certain  end-users’  rights  which  are 
necessary to apply the provisions on roaming and net neutrality effectively. 

The Commission supports these outcomes. 

Following the informal tripartite discussions on 23 March 2015, 21 April 2015, 2 June 2015 
and 29 June 2015, the Parliament and the Council reached provisional political agreement on 
the text. 

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This  political  agreement  was  confirmed  by  the  Council  on  8  July  2015,  and  on  1  October 
2015 the Council adopted its first reading position. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

As all amendments to the Commission proposal were discussed during the informal tripartite 
discussions, the Commission can accept the amendments that the Council adopted in its first 
reading position. 

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