ECTA, the European Competitive Telecommunications Association, released its Regulatory Scorecard 2005, a report it has been promoting in order to evaluate the extent to which the Member States of the European Union (EU) have been efficient in promoting investment and competition in the electronic communications sector. It evaluates the legal regimes in force and the roles played by National Regulatory Authorities.
This year's report, the third regulatory scorecard released by ECTA and the first since the NRAs began rolling-out the new community regulatory framework for electronic communications, in July 2003, had the participation of six new countries, and the fact that Portugal was included in this analysis for the first time should be stressed.
In broad terms, the report concludes that the investment in the European electronic communications sector might be negatively affected if Governments and NRAs of the several EU Member States allow companies with a historically monopolistic position in the sector to maintain a dominant position. More precisely, the report concludes that generally, among the sixteen EU countries analysed, investment in telecommunications was hurt when regulation failed to control companies with a monopolistic position, whilst it grew in the EU countries that opened the electronic communications markets to competition by setting up effective regulation.
Further information:
- Regulatory Scorecard 2005 http://www.ectaportal.com/en/REPORTS/Regulatory-Scorecards/Regulatory-Scorecard-2005/
- ECTA-European Competitive Telecommunications Association (home page) http://www.ectaportal.com/
