Sprint Corp’s Global One European alliance with Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom is being put in jeopardy by the Bundesrat upper house of the German government. In order to receive approval from the European Commission for Global One, Germany has until July 1 to license alternate infrastructure operators (such as utilities) to offer telecommunications services, but the Bundesrat has rejected the bill which would make this law, and is seeking changes to key passages in a mediation committee of both houses of parliament. The Bundestag – the lower house – has already made it clear that it is not likely to make many concessions to the Bundesrat, saying that they have had enormous influence on the draft legislation in more than a year of negotiations. Furthermore, the Bundestag warned that it could overturn some of the changes sought by the Bundesrat – specifically, the Bundesrat has said that its member states want greater influence on the regulatory authority that is to be established in 1998. It was suggested that the bill could gain final passage on July 5, the last regular session of the Bundesrat before the summer recess, after a compromise was reached in the mediation committee although according to Reuter, some Bundesraters have said an extraordinary session could be called on July 19 to vote on the bill. If a compromise is reached in July it is likely that the European Commission will turn a blind eye to Germany missing the July 1 deadline. However, if no solution is found before the summer recess (and if no extraordinary session is called to resolve the issue) the issue will drag on until the fall at the earliest, and the Commission is likely to look on this less favorably.
