The European Commission is gathering comments on the application of EU state aid rules to the public funding of broadband networks through a public consultation opened until the 3rd of September 2012. The Commission intends to adopt definitive Broadband Guidelines by December 2012.

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the application of EU state aid rules to the public funding of broadband networks. In particular, the key issue for discussion is how to adapt the current Guidelines to the objectives of the EU Digital Agenda. The Commission adopted these guidelines in September 2009. Joaquín Almunia, Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy highlighted that state aid control should support the Digital Agenda targets while maintaining incentives for commercial investments.

According to the Commission, the proposed changes aim to ensure that state aid policy in the broadband sector focusses on facilitating well-designed aid targeted at market failures and objectives of common European interest, streamlining rules and taking faster decisions. The Commission also stressed that investments in this sector shall primarily come from commercial operators. However, to achieve the Digital Agenda objectives, public funding compliant with the EU competition and state aid rules would increasingly be necessary to complement commercial investments in areas where private operators do not plan to invest because of low return of investment.

The Commission also underlined that the new Guidelines will likely to play a continuously increasing role in achieving the Digital Agenda targets, but at the other hand they will ensure that effective competition takes place on subsidized infrastructures, in particular when telecommunication companies receive grants from taxpayers' money. On the basis of the comments received until the 3rd of September, the Commission intends to adopt definitive Broadband Guidelines in December 2012.