BEREC

On 15 December 2021 BEREC held a public debriefing on the outcomes of the 49th BEREC ordinary meetings. BEREC launched two public consultations, a call  for input and presented several documents.

Next BEREC Stakeholder Forum: 23 March 2022.

Public consultation on the draft BEREC Report on a consistent approach to migration and copper switch off

The objectives of BEREC draft Report on a consistent approch to migration and copper switch-off are to:

• provide an overview of the current status and the future plans of the Significant Market Power operators' to switch off their copper network.
• to analyze the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) rules for the migration process.
• to examine further aspects of the migration.

Interested parties can provide their contributions to copper_switch-off@berec.europa.eu.

The draft Report can be downloaded from here.

Deadline for contributions:

28 January 2022 close of business day.

Public consultation on the draft BEREC Net Neutrality Regulatory Assessment Methodology (RAM)

The RAM is intended to help the NRAs in monitoring the supervision of the Open Internet Regulation (EU) 2015/2120.

All stakeholders are invited to submit their contributions to NNRAM-Consultation@berec.europa.eu.

The draft Report can be downloaded from here.

Deadline for contributions: 28 January 2022 (CET).

Call for inputs for the preparation of the 5G Value Chain report

BEREC adopted a Report on the Diversification of the 5G Ecosystem and launched a call inviting all interested stakeholders to provide their inputs via EU survey portal or by e-mail to 5GValueChain@berec.europa.eu.

The draft Report can be downloaded from here.

Deadline for contributions: 4 February 2022 close of business day.

Other adopted documents

Along with the launching of the public consultations and the call for input, BEREC published a number of documents regarding the transposition of the EECC into the national law of the Member States, the 2022 BEREC Work Programme, Open RAN, 9th BEREC Report on transparency and comparability of international roaming tariffs, BEREC Report to enable comparable national broadband coverage indicators throughout Europe and more.

You can find all of them here.

DIGITAL MARKETS ACT AND DIGITAL SERVICES ACT

Digital Markets Act

On 16 December the European Parliament approved the text of the Digital Markets Act and gave a green light to begin the negotiations with the Member States.

The European Parliament included additional requirements on the use of data for targeted or micro-targeted advertising and the interoperability of services, e.g. number-independent interpersonal communication services and social network services. Moreover, the MEPs included new provisions on the targeted advertising and on the interoperability of services, the restrictions to “killer acquisitions”, the EU enforcement, the role of national competition authorities and the fines.

The press release can be found here.

Next steps: The mandate for negotiations with the EU governments are planned to start in the first semester of 2022.

Digital Services Act

On 14 December the IMCO Committee adopted the draft report on the Digital Services Act. More than 3700 amendments and opinions have been discussed and negotiated among the political groups after intense negotiations.

The press release can be found here.

Next steps: The proposal is due to be put to vote in the Plenary session of the European Parliament in January 2022.

CONNECTING EUROPE FACILITY (CEF DIGITAL)

On 16 December the European Commission adopted the first Work Programme for the digital part of the CEF Digital which defines the scope and the objectives of the EU to improve Europe's digital connectivity infrastructures for 3 years. These actions will receive more than €1 billion in funding (2021-2023).

CEF Digital is expected to support the following key actions:

• The deployment of 5G infrastructures in Europe, in particular 5G coverage along cross-border corridors and 5G for smart communities.
• The deployment of new or significant upgrade of existing backbone networks, including cloud federations, ultra-secure quantum communication infrastructures and submarine cables, to improve the performance of the electronic communications networks within and between Member States and between the Union and third countries.
• The implementation of digital connectivity infrastructures related to cross-border projects in the areas of transport or energy and/or supporting operational digital platforms directly associated to transport or energy infrastructures.

The press release can be found here.

Next steps: January 2022: The first calls for the Connecting Europe Facility Digital will be launched.

NEXTGENERATIONEU: RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE SCOREBOARD

The European Commission launched a public online platform, a Scoreboard, to show the progress of each of the Member States regarding the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

The Scoreboard contains information collected by the Commission while monitoring the implementation of the national plans and data collected by the Member States on the common reporting indicators.

The press release can be found here.

Next steps: The first reporting of Member States on the common indicators will take place in spring 2022.

EU INSTITUTIONS LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR 2022

The leaders of the EU institutions signed a Joint Declaration identifying key legislative priorities for 2022, and welcomed progress on the 2021 priorities.

Amongst the legislative priorities in the digital area are the Data Act, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and the Proposal for a Directive on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment.

The press release can be found here.
You can download the Working document on the EU’s legislative priorities for 2022 from here.