Telecommunications Council

Lord Vaizey of Didcot Excerpts

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

The Telecommunications Council will take place in Luxemburg on 6 June 2013. I will represent the UK at this Council.

The first item is a full “tour de table” debate guided by questions from the presidency on the digital agenda for Europe—the role of the telecommunications and ICT sectors. The Commissioner for the digital agenda, Vice President Kroes is planning to launch an initiative with the aim of achieving the goal of a further integrated European telecoms single market. It forms part of the goal to achieve a pan-European digital single market by 2015; though the telecoms single market measures may have a longer timescale before realisation. This new initiative will include legislative measures and we are expecting the outcomes of this debate to inform this package of measures which will be adopted by the Commission before the summer. This package will in turn contribute to the debate at the European Council in October which will focus on digital and innovation issues. We have had initial discussions with the Commission on this initiative.

This debate will focus on two questions: garnering member states’s views on how to realise the ambition of a more integrated telecoms single market and how to realise further pan-European spectrum harmonisation. My intervention will note that while the UK welcomes the idea of a further integrated single market in telecoms in principle, we will need to see the details of the initiative first, before we comment in any detail. I will also state that any proposals will need to strike the right balance between allowing consolidation in the telecoms market but still ensuring that there is vibrant competition.

The next is a progress report from the presidency, followed by an orientation debate on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning measures to ensure a high level of network and information security across the Union. (First Reading—EM6342/13) My intervention will include that we welcome the Commission’s overarching ambition to raise cyber capabilities across the EU and that we will work with Commission and other member states to ensure that any potential legislative measures are aligned. Further, that they do not place disproportionate burdens on businesses or the public sector operating in the EU or create the wrong incentives for sharing information.

The presidency will then provide a progress report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (First Reading—EM10977/12). The UK does not currently foresee the need to intervene on this item.

The Council will then look at two proposals under the “banner” of digital infrastructure and services. The first item looks at the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks and repealing decision No 1336/97/EC (First Reading—EM16006/11). The UK does not currently foresee the need to intervene on this item.

The second item is a progress report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on measures to reduce the costs of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks (First Reading—EM7999/13). If there is a debate, the UK will say that while we strongly support the Commission’s overall objective to support broadband rollout by reducing the cost of deployment, we do not support the use of a regulation to achieve this.

There then follows a progress report on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the accessibility of public sector bodies’ websites, (First Reading—EMI7344/12), which was published on 4 December 2012. The UK does not currently foresee the need to intervene on this item.

Any Other Business

Finally, the Lithuanian delegation will inform the Council of their priorities for their forthcoming presidency. We do not currently foresee the need to intervene on this item.