Report on telecoms regulatory implementation
The European Commission has adopted a report on the state of implementation within the EU of the telecommunications regulatory measures. The report aims to measure Member States' progress in implementing the legislation, which is designed to establish a single European market for the provision of telecoms services from 1 January 1998. The report finds that progress in the Member States is broadly encouraging, with a significant number either having already transposed the whole package into national legislation or expected to have done so by the end of 1997. In a further substantial group the main principles will have been transposed, although some of the necessary secondary legislation may still need to be adopted. The report takes account of the extensions granted to the deadline for a number of Member States, due to the development or size of their networks. Ireland, Portugal and Luxembourg have already been granted such extensions, and Spain and Greece, are likely to have extensions adopted shortly. The Commission's work in this area will continue until the end of 1997, when the deadline is reached, or until the extensions granted to particular Member States expire. At this point, the monitoring work will shift focus to examine the operation of the regulations to ensure that they are applied correctly, and to examine how the market is operating.