Almost all EU states miss transferring Electronic Communications Code into national laws

The European Commission threatened to reprimand 24 EU member states for failing to transfer its Electronic Communications Code into national laws by its 21 December 2020 deadline.

In a statement, the EC said only Greece, Finland and Hungary had completed required measures by its cut-off date with the remaining states the subject of “infringement procedures” which start with a formal notice letter.

Among the countries said to have failed to comply are Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Electronic Communications Code includes measures targeted at the telecommunications industry, which the EC claims “enhance consumers’ choices and rights, for example by ensuring clearer contracts, quality of services, and competitive markets.”

It also covers emergency communications services and rules it claims allows “operators to benefit from rules incentivising investments in very-high capacity networks, as well as from enhanced regulatory predictability, leading to more innovative digital services and infrastructures.”

By the now expired deadline, member states were required to transpose the framework into individual national legislations.