The European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal for failure to implement the new EC framework for electronic communications in a timely manner. Member states of the European Union had ageed on the deadline of 24 July 2003 for the transposition of the main provisions of the new electronic communications framework into the national laws. As of 6 October 2003, seven countries had taken the necessary action to incorporate the Framework, Authorisations, Access and Universal Service Directives. These are: Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The new framework is designed for more ensuring more competitive markets and to accommodate converging electronic communications technologies.http://europa.eu.int
- In July 2003, the European Commission implemented a new regulatory framework aimed at harmonizing the policies and enforcing the legal certainty of laws pertaining to electronic communications across the member states of the European Union. The new regulatory framework, which went into effect on 25-July-2003, gives the European Commission powers to oversee the national regulatory regimes of member states through a consultative process with their national regulatory authorities (NRA). This consultative process will take place through the European Regulators Group. The EC said it aims for a lighter but comprehensive and technology-neutral regulatory telecommunications environment founded on competition law principles. The new framework seeks to streamline the entire regulatory process by limiting ex ante regulation to what is strictly necessary and by rendering the regulatory process as transparent as possible.