The committee adopted the report by Renato BRUNETTA (EPP-ED, I) amending the common position under the codecision procedure (2nd reading). It retabled a number of amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading and also adopted a number of new amendments. In particular, it reiterated Parliament's demand at 1st reading that NRAs should require operators with significant market power to provide interconnection to other public network operators on transparent, fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and comply with reasonable demands for access.
The report made a number of references to digital interactive television services and the need for interoperability between different systems, and amended the proposal accordingly. Moreover, it pointed out that application programme interfaces (APIs) and electronic programme guides (EPGs) also needed to be regulated at EU level to ensure that third parties were given non-discriminatory access to them and that consumers were given a wide choice.
The committee also retabled an amendment calling for the obligations that could be imposed by NRAs to be proportionate to the aim pursued and said that the imposition of price controls should not negatively affect competition in the long term. Lastly, it called for the Commission and the NRAs to make regular assessments of whether prices for international roaming and the prices of calls from fixed to mobile phones were based on the principles of fair competition. �