EU Electronic Communications Regulations

2002 Regulatory Framework

The European Commission launched a new review on 10 November 1999, setting out policy elements pointing to a new regulatory framework encompassing all communications infrastructures and related services. With the adoption of the new legislative package in 2002, the previous regulatory legislation—whose primary function had been to gradually open up monopolistic telecommunications sectors to competition—was consolidated, thereby enabling the establishment of a new regulatory structure that takes account of technological developments and convergence, minimises sector-specific regulations as much as possible, and draws on competition law principles.

2009 Telecommunications Reform Package

In 2006, the Commission initiated a review of the regulatory framework adopted in 2002 and implemented from mid-2003 onwards. Within this scope, in 2006, the Commission gathered views from relevant stakeholders, acknowledging the contributions of the 2002 package in the electronic communications sector while also assessing the deficiencies experienced in the existing system. In 2007, the European Commission decided to review the Union's Regulatory Framework for electronic communications (2002 Framework), and in this context, works referred to as the “Telecom Reform Package” were initiated. The works essentially consist of 3 pillars:

1- Regulation No. 2009/140/EC amending the existing Access Directive (2002/19/EC), Authorisation Directive (2002/20/EC), and Framework Directive (2002/21/EC), referred to as the “Better Regulation Directive”.

2- Regulation No. 2009/136/EC amending the Universal Service Directive (2002/22/EC), the Directive on the Processing of Personal Data and the Protection of Privacy (2002/58/EC), and Regulation 2006/2004/EC, referred to as the “Citizen's Rights Directive”.

3- Regulation establishing the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

The Telecom Reform Package was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 18 December 2009 and entered into force.