The Commission decided to reduce administrative demands on national telecoms regulators when submitting draft regulatory measures to the Commission. Since 2003, the Commission has reviewed more than 800 national regulators' decisions to break traditional telecoms monopolies and open up networks for competitors. Now the Commission adopted a new Recommendation on procedural rules for the EU-wide consultation mechanism, also known as "the Article 7 procedure", that allows national regulators to use a simplified and shortened standard form to notify the Commission of certain decisions. This will considerably simplify and speed up the EU consultation mechanism.

To further streamline the process, the Recommendation also invites national regulators to submit their market analyses together with the proposed remedies instead of separately, as it is already best practice in most EU Member States. These rules are another step towards a timelier implementation of regulatory measures and increased legal certainty for market players investing in the European telecoms sector, which ultimately benefits consumers.

EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "Telecoms markets have made considerable progress towards effective competition and consumer choice. Last year this allowed the European Commission to reduce the list of regulated markets by more than half. To continue this trend of better regulation, we want, as of today, to further ease the administrative burden on national regulators. It is time to free resources and focus on those markets where bottlenecks persist and effective competition still needs to be accompanied by regulatory oversight, such as in broadband access."

"There is still much to be done to improve competition in telecoms for the benefit of European consumers. Cutting red tape will allow a better targeted public inter-vention," said Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for Competition. "The simplifications adopted today underline our desire to focus regulation on areas where competition is not working properly."

To improve the efficiency of telecoms regulation in the EU, the Commission today adopted a revised Recommendation simplifying and streamlining the EU review mechanism for national regulatory measures. The simplified notification procedure will apply to:

- Decisions to withdraw regulation on markets which the Commission presumes no longer need sector-specific regulation (markets no longer contained in the Recommendation on relevant markets as of November 2007, IP/07/1678).

- Decisions not to regulate markets where the Commission presumes sector-specific regulation to be appropriate, but which remain effectively competitive in the Member State concerned.

- Amendments to technical details of a previously imposed remedy (e.g. delivery times, or the extension of reporting obligations).

- Extension of existing measures to another market player in a similar situation (particularly in call termination markets).

In principle, the Commission will no longer comment on such measures.

To strike a balance between simplified administration and effective assessment, the revised Recommendation also explicitly invites national regulators to submit to the EU review mechanism, also known as the 'Article 7procedure' (MEMO/08/620), their market analyses and proposed remedies simultaneously. This adjustment will reduce delays in the implementation of regulation and further enhance the consolidation of a dynamic and fully functioning Single Telecoms Market, to the benefit of all telecoms operators and consumers.

In line with its better regulation strategy, the Commission will monitor the practical consequences of the new Recommendation and use the forthcoming reform of the EU Telecoms Rules, to be discussed in the Telecoms Council in November 2008, to further minimise the administrative burden for market players and regulators.

Background

Under Article 7 of the Framework Directive of the current EU Telecoms rules, national regulators are required to notify the Commission and other EU national regulators of draft measures they plan to take. The Commission reviews the measures according to EU law and Single Market objectives, and may have them withdrawn if they do not comply.

In November 2007, the Commission reduced the number of markets regulated under the Article 7 procedure from 18 to 7 (IP/07/1678) after national regulators had found most retail and some wholesale markets to be effectively competitive.