A planned new EU telecoms watchdog will be funded with a mix of European Union and national government money, under a cross-party deal by European Parliament groups, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday. "We managed to reach agreement on this just yesterday and I will be presenting an amendment for voting in plenary that will combine these two ways of funding," centre-right Spaniard Pilar del Castillo Vera told reporters.
"I expect to have the support of most political groups on this in the final vote. The Socialist group has communicated that and also the Liberals," del Castillo Vera said.
No figure will be included in the text on how much funding should come from the two sources, she added. The new body is part of a broader overhaul of European Union telecoms rules proposed by the bloc's telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding.
Reding wants all the new body's funding to come from the bloc's budget as she fears funding from member states would make it more tied to national governments and less independent. "National financing, in whatever proportion, can only place the new body's credibility into question and opens the possibility for all kinds of administrative uncertainty," Reding said on Tuesday.
The new entity - the Body of European Regulators in Telecoms - is set to be adopted by parliament next week and will be a watered down version of a new super telecoms regulator that Reding had wanted. Parliament will also set up the new body under private, national law rather than as part of the European Union.
"I will fiercely oppose any move to transfer responsibility for EU telecoms regulation to a private body," Reding said. Catherine Trautmann, a French socialist also steering the package through parliament, said she expected a broad majority for adopting the changes to Reding's package next week so lawmakers have a strong position to negotiate with EU states on a final deal.
Parliament has joint say with EU states on the matter. The deal on BERT's funding removes the last major hurdle to parliament adopting by broad majorities two committee reports on the package.
"I think the funding of BERT was the key strategic issue and my view is the core strategic package is secure," British centre-right lawmaker Malcolm Harbour said. "Parliament next week will give overwhelming support to this package of changes," Harbour said.
Parliament is also set to scrap Reding's plan for the executive European Commission to have a veto over decisions taken by national telecom regulators. Instead, the assembly will give BERT the last word. If the Commission disagrees with a national regulator's proposal for boosting competition, the EU executive will have to have BERT's backing to alter it. Otherwise the proposal stands.
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