The Ministerial Conference on "Prospects for Development of the Electronic Communications Market in the EU" was held last 19-20 October in Warsaw, organised in the context of the Polish EU Presidency. Besides representatives from various member states and eastern European countries, it was attended by European Commissioner Neelie Kroes and representatives from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), private enterprise and the academic world.
The first day basically focused on discussing trends in the development of electronic communication services vis-à-vis the development of next generation networks (NGNs). Also noteworthy was the EC’s presentation of a 50 billion euro financing plan for investments meant to improve European networks in various areas, of which 9.2 billion are earmarked for fast and very fast broadband networks as well as pan-European services.
Discussions on the second day centred on radio spectrum for electronic communication services with respect to EU policies and co-ordination between member states and third countries. A highlight was approval of the Warsaw Ministerial Declaration on the best use of radio spectrum, supported by most of the EU member states (including Portugal) and eastern European countries that are not EU members, notably Russia and Ukraine (see declaration text at Ministerial Declaration on better use of radio spectrumhttp://www.en.mi.gov.pl/files/0/1794597/JointDeclaration2010English.pdf).