The Council held a public exchange of views on the review of the EU regulatory framework and took note of the presidency's three progress reports on the work carried out so far in its preparatory bodies. (See also COD/2007/0247 and COD/2007/0249).
The Commission's telecoms reform package aims to enable citizens, wherever they live and wherever they travel in the EU, to benefit from better and cheaper communication services.
On the basis of questions drawn up by the presidency, Ministers' debate focused in particular on the proposal on better regulation, namely the consistent application of the regulatory framework in the internal market and the management of the radio spectrum in the EU.
The discussions provided political guidance for further work on these proposals that will continue under the forthcoming French presidency.
Citizen’s rights directive: during the examination of the proposal in the working party, the delegations supported the Commission initiative in principle, agreeing that in general the amendments proposed by the Commission go in the right direction and concern important issues. The general thrust of the proposal, namely to ensure that consumers' rights remain an important focus of regulatory policy in the sector, was broadly supported, as regards both the universal service directive and the e-privacy directive.
However, Member States underlined the need to carefully examine the proposals in order to maintain an appropriate balance of proportionality and subsidiarity, as well as to avoid unnecessary burdens for both national regulatory authorities and the undertakings concerned, while ensuring competition and benefits for end-users.
In addition, the progress report identifies the main issues that remain open. In respect of the universal service directive, these issues are: provision of access at a fixed location and provision of telephone services; provisions for contracts; quality of service as well as emergency call provisions. As far as the e-privacy directive is concerned, the security of processing and the issue of implementation and enforcement, in particular, will need further discussion.