EU's Super-Regulator Plans Derailed
The European Union (EU)'s plans to create a super telecoms regulator for the region moved closer to abandonment as a key parliamentarian questioned its workability. The U.K.-based Financial Times newspaper reports that Pilar del Castillo, a Spanish conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP), and the official charged with steering the proposal through the EU legislature, said the plan adds unnecessary red tape and would be too remote from the local markets it seeks to regulate. Castillo further dismissed the notion of a one-size-fits-all approach, arguing that it is not clear that Europe has a single market problem of the size and nature to justify a radical change in the institutional set-up.
Although the latest opinion will not have fully destroyed the idea of a super-regulator, it is a big blow to EU communications commissioner Vivian Reding's plans and is an indication that they may no longer succeed. Instead, the consensus emerging from different sources suggests the idea of an advisory body, made of the 27 national regulators, may be adopted.
