Telecoms, Transport and Energy Council

Tuesday 12th December 2017 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Karen Bradley)]

The Telecommunications, Transport and Energy (TTE) Council took place in Brussels on 4 and 5 December 2017. The UK’s deputy permanent representative to the EU represented the interests of the UK at the telecommunications session of this Council, which took place on 4 December.

Telecoms

The member states unanimously agreed a general approach on the proposals laying down the renegotiated regulatory framework for the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). This was the only item put forward by the presidency for which a formal agreement was required. A scrutiny waiver was secured from the European Scrutiny Committee (House of Commons), and the European Union Committee (House of Lords) had cleared this item from scrutiny ahead of the Council.

The main policy debate at the Council centred on the Commission’s initiative on the free flow of data proposal. The Commission’s aim is for this file to be completed by mid-2018, and there was significant support from most member states for work to be expedited, with the expectation that an informal mandate for trilogue discussions could be agreed at Coreper on 20 December.

The Council agreed a 5G spectrum roadmap, a non-binding document which sets out milestones for the release of spectrum necessary for enabling 5G technologies. The UK agreed with the proposed timetable.

The presidency also provided a progress update on the e-privacy regulation information on the progress of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC).

Council conclusions were adopted on the review of the EU cybersecurity strategy and draft Council action plan for their implementation. The UK supported their adoption.

Other

The Council received information from the Bulgarian delegation, as the incoming presidency for the first half of 2018, setting out their work programme for the next six months. They highlighted a number of priorities for their presidency, aimed primarily at moving the digital single market agenda forward during 2018 including:

Proceeding with informal trilogue discussions with the European Parliament on the proposal for EECC;

Reaching political agreement on BEREC, advancing the discussions at this Council

Continue to progress both free flow of fata , e-privacy and cybersecurity.

The next Council is scheduled for 7-8 June 2018 with Telecommunications expected to take place on 8 June.

[HCWS341]