CELEX: 51997PC0100
Language: en
Date: 1997-03-03
Title: AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL ON A COMMON FRAMEWORK FOR GENERAL AUTHORISATIONS AND INDIVIDUAL LICENCES IN THE FIELD OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                              Brussels, 03.03.1997
                                              COM(97) 100 final
                                              95/0282 (COD)
                  OPINION QF THE COMMISSION
         pursuant to Article 189 b (2) (d) of the EC Treaty,
              on the European Parliament's amendments
          to the Council's common position regarding the
                               proposal for a
     EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
on a common framework for general authorisations and individual licences
               in the field of telecommunications services
       AMENDING THE PROPOSAL OF THE COMMISSION
           pursuant to Article 189 a (2) of the EC Treaty
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---  1.       BACKGROUND
On 14 November 1995 the Commission adopted a proposal for a European Parliament
 and Council Directive on a common framework for general authorisations and
 individual licences in the field of telecommunications services (COM (95) 545).
 The Economic and Social Committee gave a favourable Opinion on the Commission's
 proposal on 24 April 1996.
 The European Parliament gave its opinion in first reading on 22 May 1996, and
 proposed 37 amendments to this proposal.
On 31 July 1996 the Commission adopted a modified proposal in conformity with
Article 189A, paragraph 2 of the Treaty, incorporating most of the EP amendments
(COM (96) 342).
On 9 December 1996 the Council, acting in accordance with Article 189 B, paragraph
2 of the Treaty, adopted a common position on the proposed Directive.
In second reading, the European Parliament adopted on 20 February 1997 six
amendments to the common position.
2.        PURPOSE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL
By 1 January 1998 full competition is to be introduced in most Member States in the
provision of telecommunications services and network infrastructures. The proposed
Directive will harmonise national conditions and procedures for general authorisations
and individual licences for telecommunications services and is an important part of the
new regulatory environment supporting telecommunications liberalisation.
While more competition is to be introduced in the telecommunications sector,
authorisations regimes remain necessary in order to ensure that certain public interest
objectives are attained, including the provision of universal service. At the same time,
national regulatory frameworks must be competition-friendly, and priority must be
given to light authorisations schemes. In that context, the proposed Directive lays
down a common framework for national authorisations regimes and provides for
mechanisms aimed at facilitating the provision of cross-border networks and services.
3.     Opinion of the Commission on the amendments of the euro pea n parliament
The Commission can accept, without changes, the six amendments adopted by the
Parliament in second reading.
• Amendment 1 contributes to clarify Art. 10.1 of the common position.
• Amendments 2 and 5 indicate important concerns and principles, to be taken into
    account in the context of possible future Community initiatives when the Directive
    will be reviewed by 1 January 2000.
 ---pagebreak---     Amendment 3 introduces two useful clarifications with regard to the scope of
    individual licences.
    Amendment 4 will, in the key area of new services, bring additional guarantees to
    undertakings applying for a licence.
    Amendment 6 adds a useful clarification to the Annex.
4.    MODIFIED PROPOSAL
On 9 December 1996 the Commission has adopted its opinion on the common position
regarding the proposed Directive for a European Parliament and Council Directive on
a common framework for general authorisations and individual licences in the field of
telecommunications services, by which it accepted the revised text for the proposed
Directive.
Following the second reading of the draft Directive by the European Parliament, the
Commission herewith modifies its proposal for a Directive including all the
amendments which were adopted by the European Parliament on 20 February 1997.
 ---pagebreak---                    AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR
A DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL
                  ON A COMMON FRAMEWORK
   FOR GENERAL AUTHORISATIONS AND INDIVIDUAL LICENCES
       IN THE FIELD OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
 ---pagebreak---                                                 Recital 3
                                       (following amendment 1)
Whereas a common framework should              Whereas a common framework should
be established for general authorizations      be established for general authorizations
and individual licences granted by             and individual licences granted by
Member States in the field of                  Member States in the field of
telecommunications services; whereas           telecommunications services; whereas
under Community law and in particular          under Community law and in particular
under                         Commission       under                         Commission
Directive 90/388/EEC of 28 June 1990           Directive 90/388/EEC of 28 June 1990
on competition in the markets for              on competition in the markets for
telecommunications services, market            telecommunications services, market
entry should be restricted on the basis        entry should be restricted on the basis
only of objective, non-discriminatory,         only of objective, non-discriminatory,
proportionate and transparent selection        proportionate and transparent selection
criteria relating to the availability of       criteria relating to the availability of
scarce resources or on the basis of the        scarce resources or on the basis of the
implementation by national regulatory          implementation by national regulatory
authorities     of     objective,     non-     authorities     of     objective,     non-
discriminatory and transparent award           discriminatory and transparent award
procedures;        whereas        Directive    procedures;        whereas        Directive
90/388/EEC also sets out principles            90/388/EEC also sets out principles
regarding, inter alia, fees and rights of      regarding, inter alia, fees, numbers and
way; whereas these rules should be             rights of way; whereas these rules
supplemented and enlarged by this              should be supplemented and enlarged by
Directive to determine this common             this Directive to determine this common
framework;                                     framework;
                                            Recital 18a (new)
                                       (following amendment 2)
                                               Whereas a certain harmonization of the
                                               procedures is already foreseen in this
                                               directive; whereas further harmonization
                                               may be desirable in order to come to a
                                               more integrated telecommunications
                                               market; whereas this possibility should
                                               be assessed in the report to be
                                               elaborated by the Commission;
                                                Article 7
                                       (following amendment 2)
1. Member States may issue individual           1. Member States may issue individual
 ---pagebreak---     licences for the following purposes               licences for the following purposes
    only:                                             only:
(a) to allow the licensee access to radio         (a) to allow the licensee access to radio
    frequencies or numbers;                           frequencies or numbers;
(b) to give the licensee particular rights        (b) to give the licensee particular rights
    with regard to access to public or                with regard to access to public or
    private land;                                     private land;
(c) to     impose       obligations       and     (c) to     impose       obligations      and
    requirements on the licensee relating             requirements on the licensee relating
    to the mandatory provision of                     to the mandatory provision of
    publicly                        available         publicly                       available
    telecommunications services and/or                telecommunications services and/or
    public             telecommunications             public             telecommunications
    networks,      including     obligations          networks,     including      obligations
    under ONP legislation and/or which                which require the licensee to provide
    require the licensee to provide                   universal     service     and      other
    universal service;                                obligations under ONP legislation;
(d) to impose specific obligations, in            (d) to impose specific obligations, in
    accordance        with      Community             accordance        with      Community
    competition rules, where the licensee             competition rules, where the licensee
    has significant market power, as                  has significant market power, as
    defined in Article 4(3) of the                    defined in Article 4(3) of the
    Interconnection Directive in relation             Interconnection Directive in relation
    to    the     provision     of      public        to    the    provision      of    public
    telecommunications networks and                   telecommunications networks and
    publicly                        available         publicly                       available
    telecommunications services.                      telecommunications services.
       Notwithstanding paragraph 1, the                  Notwithstanding paragraph 1, the
    provision     of    voice      telephony          provision of publicly available voice
    services, the establishment and                   telephony services, the establishment
    provision            of            public         and       provision      of       public
    telecommunications networks as                    telecommunications networks as
    well as other networks involving the              well as other networks involving the
    use of radio frequencies may be                   use of radio frequencies may be
    subject to individual licences.                   subject to individual licences.
                                                  Article 19
                                          (following amendment 4)
Without prejudice to sections II and III,         Without prejudice to sections II and III,
where       the      provision       of      a    where       the     provision       of     a
telecommunications service is not yet             telecommunications service is not yet
covered by a general authorization and            covered by a general authorization and
where such a service and/or network               where such a service and/or network
cannot       be      provided        without      cannot       be      provided       without
 ---pagebreak--- authorization, Member States shall, not        authorization, Member States shall, not
later than six weeks after they have           later than six weeks after they have
received     an     application,    adopt      received      an      application,      adopt
provisional conditions or reject the           provisional conditions allowing the
application and inform the undertaking         undertaking to start providing the
concerned of the reasons therefor. As          service or reject the application and
soon as possible thereafter, Member            inform the undertaking concerned of the
States shall adopt definitive conditions       reasons therefor. As soon as possible
or consent to the provision of the             thereafter, Member States shall adopt
service concerned without authorization        definitive conditions or consent to the
or provide reasons for any refusal to do       provision of the service concerned
so.                                            without     authorization      or     provide
                                               reasons for any refusal to do so.
                                               Member States shall lav down an
                                               appropriate procedure for appealing to
                                               an institution independent of the
                                               national regulatory authority against
                                               refusals to adopt provisional or
                                               definitive conditions, rejections of
                                                applications or refusals to consent to the
                                                provision of the service concerned
                                                without authorization.
                                                Article 23
                                       (following amendment 5)
Before 1 January 2000, the Commission          Before 1 January 2000, the Commission
shall prepare a report to be submitted to      shall prepare a report to be submitted to
the European Parliament and Council.           the European Parliament and Council
The report shall include an assessment,        and to be accompanied,                 where
on the basis of the experience gained, of      appropriate.       by     new      legislative
the need for further development of the        proposals. The report shall include an
regulatory    structures     as   regards      assessment, on the basis of the
authorizations, in particular in relation      experience gained, of the need for
to the scope of individual licences, to        further development of the regulatory
harmonization and to trans-European            structures as regards authorizations, in
services    and     networks.         Any     particular      in     relation     to     the
amendments necessary to adapt the             harmonization of the procedures and the
content of the Annex to new                   scope of individual licences, to other
technological      developments       and     aspects of harmonization and to trans-
appropriate      practical    procedures,     European services and networks. The
together with Article 7(2), shall also be     report shall also include proposals with
considered in this report.                    a view to consolidating the various
                                              committees existing in Community
                                              telecommunications legislation. Any
                                              amendments necessary to adapt the
                                              content of the Annex to new
                                              technological        developments         and
                                              appropriate        practical     procedures,
                                              together with Article 7(2), shall also be
                                            f
 ---pagebreak---                                               considered in this report.
                                                Annex
                                      (following amendment 6)
This list of conditions shall be without      This list of conditions shall be without
prejudice to:                                 prejudice to:
  any other conditions which are not           any other legal conditions which are not
specific to the telecommunications            specific to the telecommunications
sector;                                       sector;
          measures taken by Member                      measures taken by Member
States in accordance with public interest     States in accordance with public interest
requirements recognized by the Treaty,        requirements recognized by the Treaty,
in particular Articles 36 and 56,             in particular Articles 36 and 56,
specifically in relation to public            specifically in relation to public
morality, public security, including the      morality, public security, including the
investigation of criminal activities, and     investigation of criminal activities, and
public policy.                                public policy.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                    ISSN 0254-1475
                                                            COM(97) 100 final
                                              DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                   15 06 10
                                    Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-084-EN-C
                                                             ISBN 92-78-16605-7
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