Telecoms stakeholders urge Breton to reconsider some stances in light of Commission appointment

3 months ago 20

Telecom industry stakeholders have called on incumbent Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, to reconsider some of his previous stances in light of his potential reappointment for the 2024-2029 term.

French President Emmanuel Macron proposed Thierry Breton for another five-year term as the country’s commissioner in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

While portfolio negotiations for the next European Commission are still ongoing and require formal approval from the European Parliament, France is reportedly aiming for a broader portfolio that includes economic security and defence.

While Breton has made a name for himself by delivering ambitious pieces of regulation, stakeholders argue that Breton’s past experience as CEO of France Telecom (now Orange) between 2002 and 2005 overly influenced his previous tenure.

“The past legislature has been coloured by his experience as CEO of one of the biggest European incumbents,” a European Competitive Telecommunications Association spokesperson (ECTA) told Euractiv.

“We hope that a potential second mandate will recognise the crucial role of different players in the telecom sector as essential to guaranteeing Europe’s global competitiveness,” added the ECTA spokesperson.

During his previous tenure, Breton advocated for the “fair share” tax, which would require big tech companies to pay fees based on the amount of bandwidth their digital services consume on telecom networks.

This proposal faced strong opposition from many stakeholders—except for large telecom companies—who argued it would effectively create an unfair tax on innovative digital players, whose services actually help drive subscriptions to telecom services.

During his previous term, Breton also championed a Digital Networks Act to redefine EU legislation in the telecom market, including competition rules. Since then, the idea of further harmonising the EU’s telecom market gained traction, with former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen both endorsing it in recent reports and political guidelines.

However, any changes to competition rules are met with significant scepticism by industry stakeholders.

In April, consumer association BEUC and ECTA issued a joint statement, urging the EU and member states to hold off on any legislative changes in the telecom sector until the Commission presents its proposals for reviewing the European Electronic Communications Code, expected by the end of 2025.

To foster investment in telecoms and accelerate the rollout of mobile and fibre networks, Breton should not support “already large companies in becoming ‘European champions’,” a spokesperson for the German fibre association BREKO told Euractiv.

The spokesperson added, “The EU should abandon this idea as quickly as possible,” arguing that “the great diversity of companies should be seen as a strength of the European telecommunications market.”

Additionally, BREKO states that “the EU and Thierry Breton must recognise that the rapid switch-off of old copper networks is an important lever to support fibre roll-out.”

Smaller telecom companies fear that the transition from copper to fibre could be used by incumbent copper network operators to reinforce their market dominance. “National regulatory authorities [must ensure] a competitive switch-off process,” the BREKO spokesperson stated.

Several industry stakeholders in the wider technology industry contacted by Euractiv declined to comment on this story.