The European Parliament formally adopted a range of new telecoms measures yesterday but significantly watered down plans to create an EU-wide ‘super regulator’ that would have power to overrule national regulators, reports Reuters. Instead, the Parliament has backed the creation of the Body of European Regulators in Telecoms (BERT) group, an enhanced version of the existing European Regulators Group (ERG) that comprises the 27 member state national telecoms regulators. Rather than giving the European Commission a veto over regulatory decisions – as was the original plan – BERT will take decisions by a two-thirds majority. BERT will be funded by a mix of EU money and national government money, says Reuters, also watering down a proposal for full EU funding that would have made the body independent of national governments. The decision to create BERT was first reported in the summer after a number of national regulators were understood to have objected to the original proposals. 

According to Reuters, the new regulations will also allow national regulators to impose functional separation on incumbent fixed-line operators, and also remain in charge of decisions on spectrum – rejecting plans for a pan-EU approach to spectrum allocation. Other measures include increased consumer rights disclosures and increased e-privacy provisions.