BEREC event 2014

The 4th meeting of the BEREC Contact Network (CN) for 2014 took place on 13 and 14 November 2014 in Helsinki, kindly hosted by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA). The meeting was chaired by Mr Ola Bergström, Director for International Affairs at PTS, representative of the BEREC Chair 2014.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) with primary responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day operation of the markets for electronic communications networks and services. NRAs from each EU Member State, each EFTA State and the States that are candidates for accession to the EU were represented. The European Commission and the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) also took part in the meeting and were represented at appropriate level.

The objective of the 4^th meeting of the BEREC CN was to prepare the 21st meetings of the BEREC Board of Regulators (BoR) and the BEREC Office Management Committee (MC) to take place on 4 and 5 December 2014 in Brussels (Belgium).

In that respect the CN considered all topics to be included in the BoR and MC agendas and concluded the following:

I.          Documents to be submitted to the Board of Regulators (BoR)

The CN agreed to submit the following documents to the BoR:

1.         As ‘A’ items (without discussion):

1.1.     For approval and publication:

-               Draft BEREC Termination Rates Benchmark Snapshot (as of July 2014);

-               Draft BEREC Report on transparency and comparability of different roaming tariffs;

-               Draft BEREC Monitoring Report on the implementation of the BEREC Common Positions on WLA, WBA and WLL – Phase I;

-               Draft BEREC Questions to stakeholders for the preparation of the BEREC Report on oligopoly analysis and regulation.

1.2.     For approval for internal use:

• -      Draft BEREC MTR Benchmark (as of July 2014) - Internal Report;
• -      Draft BEREC SMS benchmark (as of July 2013) - Internal Report;
• -      Draft BEREC cross-border SMS termination report;
• -      Draft PRDs for the implementation of the BEREC 2015 Work Programme (WP);
• -      Draft BEREC Best Practices regarding internet access in the consumer market;
• -      Draft BEREC report on M2M services;
• -      Draft BEREC Internal report on telecommunications issues in smart grids.

2.         As regular items (with presentation and discussion):

2.1.     For approval and publication:

-               Draft BEREC Strategy 2015-2017;

-               Draft BEREC Report on the Public Consultation (PC) of the BEREC Strategy 2015-2017;

-               Draft BEREC Work Programme 2015;

-               Draft BEREC Report on the PC of the BEREC draft Work Programme 2015;

-               Draft BoR Decision on BEREC Expert Working Groups (EWGs);

-               Draft BEREC Guidance on the regulatory accounting approach to the economic replicability test (ex-ante margin squeeze tests);

-               Draft Report on the BEREC PC on document “Guidance on the regulatory accounting approach to the economic replicability test (i.e. ex-ante/sector specific margin squeeze tests)”;

-               Proposal for amending the BoR Rules of Procedure.

2.2.     For approval for submission to the Commission and publication:International Roaming: Draft BEREC Input to EC request.

2.3.     For approval for internal use: Equivalence of Inputs: a preliminary Report on issues and potential approaches.

The CN was informed that during the 21^st BoR plenary meeting BEREC and the Group of Eastern Partnership Regulators for Electronic Communications Networks and Services (EaPeReg Network) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding and will discuss the future of their cooperation.

The CN was informed that the 21^st BEREC plenary will be preceded by two workshops during which the BEREC Heads would have the opportunity to discuss the forthcoming review of the Regulatory Framework for electronic communications and services and the future of roaming.

Before the start of the plenary meeting Commission Oettinger will invite the BEREC Heads to dinner to inform them about the new policy initiatives in the field of the digital single market and obtain their initial feed-back.

II.          Documents to be submitted to the BEREC Office Management Committee (MC)

The CN agreed to submit the following documents to the MC:

1.    As ‘A’ items (without discussion):

1.1.     For approval and publication:

-               Draft BEREC Office 2015 Budget, subject to the outcome of the conciliation procedure on the General EU Budget;

1.2.     For information:

-               Explanatory Note on transfers by Administrative Manager in BEREC Office Budget 2014 in July-September 2014;

-               Information of the administrative complaints lodged on the basis of Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations and the Court proceedings brought before the Civil Service Tribunal by former staff member against BEREC Office.

2.         As regular items (with presentation and discussion):

2.1.     For consideration and information: BEREC Office Report on operation and budget execution January-September 2014;

2.2.     For discussion and decision on the way forward: Draft BEREC Office Multiannual Programming Document.

The next meeting of the CN will take place on 5 and 6 February 2015 in Prague (Czech Republic) and will be hosted by the Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU).

Helsinki, 14 November 2014