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Connect Europe calls for‘ bold’ regulatory reset
Connect Europe – the leading voice of European connectivity providers, representing 70 % of total sector investment – has urged European institutions to seize the crucial opportunity of the Digital Networks Act( DNA) to reignite Europe’ s competitiveness.
In its response to the EC’ s Call for Evidence, the association emphasised that ambitious deregulation, bold simplification, deep harmonisation, and a competitive level playing field are essential for Europe to reclaim its digital leadership on the global stage
Connect Europe supports a bold Commission proposal for a Digital Networks Act, to implement swiftly the recommendations of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta’ s high-level reports.
It says that the current regulatory framework was designed decades ago for old networks and outdated market dynamics, and today it holds Europe back, with this clearly shown in the latest figures published by the European Commission, which reveal that the full fibre target will only be reached by 2051,
‘ Ambitious deregulation, bold simplification, deep harmonisation, and a competitive level playing field are essential.’
and that Europe lags behind all global peers on 5G standalone. This harms not only users but also the competitiveness of our economies.
According to Connect Europe, the DNA must be established as a regulation that places competitiveness, simplification, and harmonisation at its core – creating an environment that promotes significant investment in digital infrastructure,
4 EUROMEDIA incentivises innovation, eliminates outdated and overly burdensome regulations, and levels the playing field among all digital players. Only by committing to these foundational principles and enabling telecom operators to reach scale can Europe realistically achieve its ambitious digital targets, ensuring the widespread availability of advanced and secure connectivity, critical for the continent’ s resilience and economic prosperity.
Connect Europe’ s key priorities are as follows:
• A radical simplification of the telecom regulatory framework by removing outdated, duplicative, or disproportionate obligations – particularly where horizontal legislation already ensures compliance – while reducing reporting burdens and repealing obsolete measures( such as the ePrivacy Directive).
• A general shift from ex-ante to expost control in wholesale access where competition law and the Gigabit Infrastructure Act would be the standard rules. This would mirror the proposals in the European Commission’ s White Paper and supported by Mario Draghi, to reflect new market realities and promote an investment-driven model. Instead of the current SMP-based regime, we believe that ex-ante obligations should remain only as a safety net in cases of local access bottlenecks. A pan-EU access product is strongly opposed as disproportionate, commercially unviable, and counter to the goals of simplification.
• Spectrum policy should provide long-term investment certainty by extending licence durations( ideally to 40 years or indefinite) and enabling automatic renewals. It should also improve transparency and coordination through enhanced peer review, appeal mechanisms, and Commission notification, and support market-driven, flexible use of spectrum, without imposing uniform assignment timetables.
• Addressing structural imbalances in the Internet ecosystem by enforcing the principle of‘ same service, same rules’, and requiring tech giants to negotiate fair terms for data transport services, backed by a binding dispute resolution mechanism. To protect investment and innovation, the Commission should provide legal guidance on the Open Internet Regulation( OIR) through a new Recommendation, supporting the development of 5G network slicing use cases. The DNA is also an opportunity to update net neutrality rules, notably by extending its principles to major players with influence on content delivery such as CDNs, operating systems, and digital platforms, and by excluding B2B from its scope.
• Effective governance of the single market through stronger EU-level harmonisation where needed to ensure coherent enforcement across Member States, and reduce fragmentation caused by divergent national practices and crossborder barriers. The Commission should lead in monitoring, coordinating, and guiding NRAs, thereby focusing on bestpractice sharing to ensure consistent rule application.
• The DNA should address crosscutting challenges by removing outdated rules, ensuring equal treatment of similar services to enable fair integration of new technologies like satellite Direct-to-Device, and supporting environmental goals through efficiency and simplification, instead of imposing yet more reporting burdens. Connect Europe stands ready to support the European institutions in ensuring that the DNA drives strategic investment in critical connectivity technologies while promoting sustainability through energy-efficient and circular telecom practices.
“ We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results,” warned Alessandro Gropelli, director general of Connect Europe.“ This is why we strongly welcome the Digital Networks Act: profound reform can put the EU back on the global tech map and give our citizens and businesses the advanced connectivity they need to compete.”