Last week, ANCOM President Catalin Marinescu attended the first meeting of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the body which replaces the European Regulators Group (ERG) and aims at strengthening the cooperation between the EU Member States regulatory authorities, as well as between the these and the European Commission.
BEREC was established in January 2010 by a Regulation of the European Parliament and Council and its main objective is to ensure the consistent enforcement of the regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services in all Member States, thus contributing to the development of the EU single market and promoting a high level of investments, innovation and consumer protection by means of competition.
Regarding the benefits of the new structure, President Catalin Marinescu deems that „the establishment of BEREC acknowledges the valuable activity of ERG and of the Independent Regulators Group (IRG). Thus, the importance and visibility of the body of the Member States’ regulators significantly increase and, concomitantly, an equal partnership between regulators and the Commission is ensured in the Management Committee of the Office of BEREC”.
The activity of BEREC will be coordinated by the Board of Regulators composed by one representative per Member State, namely the President of the regulatory authority of the respective state. The first president of BEREC is John Doherty (ComReg – Ireland), whereas Chris Fonteijn (Opta – The Netherlands), Reinaldo Rodriguez (CMT – Spain) and Matthias Kurth (BNetzA – Germany) are vice-presidents.
The office, established as a Community body with legal personality and administrative and financial autonomy, will provide the necessary administrative and professional support services to BEREC. The Management Committee will be composed of one representative per Member State, namely the president of the regulatory authority established in the respective Member State, and one member representing the Commission. The Office will be managed by an Administrative Manager, appointed by the Management Committee for a 3-year period, who will be responsible, among other, with the supervision of the implementation of the annual work programme of the Office and implementation of the budget of the Office.
Further information is available here.