On 5 December 2022, the BEREC Chair 2022 Annemarie Sipkes (ACM, the Netherlands ), the BEREC Chair 2023 Kostas Masselos (EETT, Greece) and the Director of the BEREC Office László Ignéczi were invited by the ITRE Committee of the European Parliament for an exchange of views. 

The BEREC Chair highlighted the work done by BEREC this year in order to facilitate the Twin Transition; the combined transition towards a digital and sustainable society. Work on the Internet ecosystem, roaming guidelines, number-independent interpersonal communication services (NI-ICS) and interoperability were discussed. The incoming BEREC Chair indicated that these efforts will continue in 2023, amongst others with reports coming up on the IP interconnection ecosystem and a report on cloud services and edge computing. 

Looking forward, Annemarie Sipkes underlined BEREC’s experience as independent regulators that consistently apply a European legal framework, while being rooted nationally. Thus, BEREC is well positioned to help in offering technical expertise and monitoring (for example, in the context of the DMA), but may also contribute in the implementation of more national based regulation such as the DSA. Concerning sustainability of the sector, BEREC noted that the EU wide useable indicators needs to be defined. 

Kostas Masselos highlighted the relevance of sufficient investment in telecom infrastructure – on one hand, the balance that needs to be established between investment and, on the other – competition stimulating qualitative and affordable services for end users. He also noted that today we see a convergence of information/digital and communication technologies and the borders between them become more and more blurred. The National Regulatory Authorities and BEREC could give its know how, clearly playing a role in the implementation of digital rulebooks such as the DSA and the Data Act.

László Ignéczi reminded the ITRE Committee of the two-tier structure of BEREC and the BEREC Office, the smallest EU Agency, and pointed on the composition of the Board of Regulators that includes the Ukrainian regulator (NCEC) since June 2022, as its 38th member. He welcomed the announcement of the Vice-Chair of the ITRE Committee that a visit to Riga, Latvia, and the BEREC Office is scheduled for May 2023, also with a view to the future House of Europe.