The Council of EU Ministers unanimously approved the EU's telecoms reform package, first proposed by the European Commission in 2007. The new rules will enhance competition and investment in Europe's telecoms market, by giving more certainty to companies investing in high-speed optical fibre and wireless networks. It will also open up airwaves for new mobile services. The European Parliament will vote next week, in its Strasbourg plenary session, to formally endorse the telecoms package.

Council's decision comes after a political agreement on the package was reached in a breakthrough meeting between the European Parliament and Council on 5 November. This approval comes at the right time: at a time of economic and financial crisis, with the EU's GDP expected to fall by 4% this year, the reform will have a very positive macroeconomic impact.

The new EU telecoms rules will make a substantial contribution to a stronger, more competitive and more consumer-friendly single telecoms market with faster fibre and mobile networks across Europe. It will also give telecoms operators, whether incumbents or new entrants, legal certainty and ensure that decisions across Member States are taken in a consistent manner, and it will open up airwaves for new mobile services

Next steps:

• Final vote on the reform package in a third reading in the plenary session of the European Parliament (scheduled for 24 November 2009)
• Entry into force of the whole telecoms reform package with publication in the EU's Official Journal (December 2009)
• Establishment of the European Body of Telecoms Regulators BEREC (spring 2010)
• Transposition of the telecoms reform package into national legislation in the 27 EU Member States (by June 2011).

At their vote in Plenary Session on May 6th 2009, MEPs amended a political agreement reached with the Council on the reform of the regulatory framework for electronic communications. The Telecom package includes the revision of the electronic communications framework, the citizens' rights directive and the establishment of a new European body of telecom regulators called BEREC.