The Minister for Digital and Culture (Matt Hancock)
The EU Council of Ministers’ Telecommunications Council took place in Brussels on 2 December 2016. I represented the UK at this Council. As is procedure, this statement sets out a formal record of that meeting.
The first item was a policy debate on the two legislative instruments and two communications that form the European Commission’s recently-published connectivity package:
The European electronic communications code directive (First reading—EM 12252/16);
Regulation on body of European regulators for electronic communications (First reading—EM12257/16);
Communication on “5G for Europe: An action plan” (EM12279/16); and
Communication on “Connectivity for a Competitive Digital Single Market—Towards a European Gigabit Society” (EM 12364/16).
My intervention was as per the pre-Council statement.
The Council then adopted a general approach on amending regulation (EU) No 531/2012 as regards rules for wholesale roaming markets (First reading— EM 13555/13).
The Council was then provided with an update from the Slovak presidency on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on cross-border parcel delivery services (First reading—EM9706/16). There was no substantive debate on this item.
The Council then adopted a partial general approach on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending regulations as regards the promotion of internet connectivity in local communities (First reading—EM 12259/16).
This was then followed by three items under AOB led by the Commission, the first being on fair use policy in the context of roaming services, followed by information on digital single market initiatives and finally under AOB, current internet governance issues. There were no substantive debates on any of these items.
Finally, the Maltese delegation informed the Council of their priorities for their forthcoming presidency before Council adjourned until the next meeting in Q2 2017.
[HCWS347]