PhoneAbility

9. The European Regulators Group

The NRAs are national bodies appointed by Member States in compliance with the existing Electronic Communications Directives; their very specific powers and duties derive from those Directives. Additionally, each NRA may have further powers and duties as defined by a Member State in the legal instrument setting up its NRA. The NRAs liaise with one another and with the Commission through the Communications Committee (COCOM) which is also established by the Directives. Further to this the NRAs take part in a less formal liaison grouping – the European Regulators Group – which was created to act as an advisory group to help develop the internal market (in electronic communications), to ensure the consistent application of the regulatory framework and to promote the interests of EU citizens. These objectives mirror those given to NRAs in Article 8 of the present Framework Directive. Advice is offered to the Commission, which is not itself a member of the ERG.

Although the ERG cannot speak on behalf of the European Member States (official views are communicated through other mechanisms), it can and does provide a sounding board through which the practicalities of regulation can be explored. The question arises of whether the ERG could have a more formal role in discussions with the Commission, and the ERG’s Chairman is on record as having written to the Commissioner – Viviane Reding – with such a proposal. This question is particularly significant in view of the proposal to set up a European market regulatory Authority – the EECMA.

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