The EU Commission should respect Member States’ opinions on Europe’s digital infrastructure needs
In December, EU ministers at the TTE Council largely opposed easing telecom mergers, extending telecom rules to digital services, and introducing new IP rules, citing risks to net neutrality and consumers. Will the Commission respect their opinion?
In December, we highlighted the main points the EU Member States ministers made at the Transport, Telecommunications, and Energy (TTE) Council. The Ministers largely resisted easier telecommunication company mergers, the extension of telecommunications rules (Europe electronic communications code) to the digital services sector, and new IP interconnection rules.
Ministers expressed concerns about the impact on the future of the Internet, net neutrality, and consumers and asked the Commission to conduct more evidence-based analysis.
“Wouldn’t pay too much attention to it”
The European Commission likely found the Council's conclusions surprising, as a representative from DG Connect remarked to Germany's Tagesspiegel that the conclusions were "unusual" and suggested that they "wouldn't pay too much attention to it”. The article with the controversial statement is now paywalled.
People who attended the meeting remember earlier Council sessions where Member States used to be criticized for disagreeing with the Commission's ideas. They hope this won't happen again in the future and that the Commission will respect their stance.
Some representatives from Member States think that some goals in the white paper and the EU’s Digital Decade plans serve as objectives on their own, diverting attention and money from more urgent priorities.
