At its Plenary
Session of 6 May 2009, the European Parliament adopted a number of amendments
negotiated with the Council to the Council's common position with a view to
securing adoption in second reading. The Commission accepts the European
Parliament's amendments as being in line with the overall purpose and the
general characteristics of the proposal. It amends its proposal in line with
the amendments voted by the European Parliament in second reading.
To recall, these amendments concern the following:
- on
spectrum: the introduction of greater
flexibility through service and technology neutrality albeit with a
series of exceptions; the possibility of imposing service exclusivity in
limited cases; the adoption of pluriannual spectrum policy programmes by
the European Parliament and Council upon a proposal by the Commission
assisted by the Radio Spectrum Policy Group; the power to harmonise
bands where rights are to be made tradable, and exemption from the
requirement to initiate a new award of rights in the case of the review
of restrictions to existing rights;
- strengthening
the independence of the national regulatory authorities responsible for
ex ante market regulation and dispute resolution;
- further
clarification of the requirements applicable to appeals against decisions
of the national regulatory authorities;
- provision
for the Commission, in close cooperation with BEREC, to issue
recommendations with regard to the withdrawal and/or amendment of draft
measures notified by national regulatory authorities relating to the
imposition, amendment or withdrawal of ex ante obligations on operators;
- ensuring
that national regulatory authorities take measures to promote the
interests of citizens by safeguarding fundamental rights and freedoms of
end-users;
- power for
the Commission to adopt further harmonisation measures in the form of
recommendations or binding decisions, where divergences in the
implementation of remedies persist;
- strengthening
the powers of national authorities to impose obligations for the sharing
of facilities or property associated with electronic communications
networks;
- clarification
of the principles and objectives to be followed by national regulatory
authorities, with particular reference to preserving incentives for
investment in new network infrastructure while safeguarding competition;
- updating and
modernisation of provisions in order to improve the technological
neutrality of the framework;
- new
provisions setting out the conditions and procedure for the imposition
of functional separation by a national regulatory authority.
As regards a
specific European Parliament amendment which leaves Member States to ensure
that a fair balance is struck between the various fundamental rights
protected by the Community legal order (in particular, the right to respect
for private life, the right to protection of property, the right to an
effective remedy and the right to freedom of expression and information), the
Commission states that it can accept it in its amended proposal after the
European Parliament's first reading but supported the European
Parliament-Council compromise text afterwards as a balanced solution. The
Commission could, therefore, accept the amendment, but will do its utmost to
facilitate the emergence of a compromise between the co-legislators on this
issue.