Information Technologies and Communications Authority President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu attended the BEREC-IRG Meeting.
The final general assembly meetings of this year for BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications) and IRG (Independent Regulators Group), where regulatory authorities in the electronic communications field from European countries convene with the European Commission to act within a common framework for the implementation of the EU's electronic communications legislation and to compare national and Union legislation in line with changes and developments in the sector, were held in Malta on December 5-6, 2019.
BTK was represented by a delegation chaired by Authority President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu at the Malta General Assembly meetings, which were the 41st meeting of BEREC—where our country holds observer status—and the 4th meeting of 2019 for IRG—of which we are a member—bringing together the presidents of national regulatory authorities from EU member states as well as EFTA (European Free Trade Area) countries and EU candidate countries.
Addressing the IRG General Assembly on the first day of the meeting, BTK President Karagözoğlu shared his views on IRG's planning for 2020 and beyond. President Karagözoğlu stated that the anticipated changes in the work program and planned activities in line with IRG's perspective for the next 10 years would ensure efficient use of resources and increased benefits for members, and that the proposed changes were positively received by our country.
Additionally, at the IRG General Assembly, it was approved that the Vice Presidency of BEREC, undertaken by our Authority in 2016 on behalf of non-EU member countries in accordance with conventions, would be assumed by Sasho Dimitrijoski, President of the North Macedonia Authority-AEC, for 2020.
At the BEREC General Assembly, where current work on Europe's electronic communications sector was evaluated and the agenda for the upcoming period was discussed, the results of studies completed by BEREC on call termination rates in Europe, international roaming, transition to next-generation networks, transparency obligations, margin squeeze tests, and regulatory accounting were first shared and approved. Subsequently, the Commission representative introduced the new European Commission formed through the process completed in recent days following elections in the EU and shared information on the Commission's recent activities.
Additionally, at the BEREC General Assembly, regulations on data to be collected from authorized operators and OTTs, and on very high capacity networks; the best practices guide document on broadband internet access; changes to forms used in the notification procedure for general authorizations; the impact of 5G on regulations and necessary regulations for creating the 5G ecosystem; as well as the BEREC 2020 work plan and 2021-2023 Medium-Term Strategy were discussed.
On the second day of the meeting, under the agenda item on experience sharing regarding strategically important topics for the BEREC General Assembly, presentations were made by a representative of the Polish Authority UKE on measuring service quality, by a representative of the UK authority OFCOM on service contracts and consumers, and by a representative of the Finnish authority Traficom on efforts to increase fiber infrastructure investments, sharing national experiences with participants.
Meanwhile, BEREC President Jeremy Godfrey presented a discussion document on matters envisaged to be included in the medium-term strategy in 2020 to ensure transparency in the conduct and prioritization of BEREC's international relations, and an exchange of views was held at the General Assembly on this topic.
During the meetings, President Karagözoğlu held contacts with the presidents of regulatory authorities from various countries and exchanged views on current issues. Karagözoğlu also met with Ambassador Kerem Ahmet Kıratlı in Valletta.