A resolution for organising competition in telecommunications in Europe after January 1 1998, has been unanimously adopted by the 15 European Community telecommunications ministers. Presented by council president and new French telecommunications minister Francois Fillon, the resolution, based on general principles from the European Community’s Green Paper on liberalisation of telecommunications, recognises four elements as key to the future regulatory structure of the union. First, it states that access to different national markets will be totally open to independent operators, with the number of licences granted being limited only for objective, transparent and non-discriminatory reasons, such as number of frequencies available. Second, the resolution calls for the maintenance and development of universal service by adopting common principles for indemnifying operators who undertake to provide that service. The ministers seemed to settle on two potential choices: member states can adopt either the access charge system used in the US, UK and Sweden, or they can create a common indemnity fund.
Universal service
For the context of universal service, they also agreed on the need for cost accounting and for according the biggest importance to research. Third, it calls for specific rules for interconnection, including guidelines for negotiating commercial interconnection agreements. And finally, the resolution specifies the guarantee of an effective and comparable access to third-party countries, something that must be negotiated within the World Trade Organisation. A spokesman for industrial commissioner Martin Bangemann said the resolution serves to show that the ministers no longer view the concept of competition incompatible with that of universal service. With the council’s approval of the resolution, the European Commission should present a final directive to the 15 countries before the end of the year, based on the Green Paper.
