Brussels, 06.06.2018: Today ECTA celebrates its 20th anniversary of promoting competition for the greater good of society.
ECTA recalls that effective competition is the key of current and future success of the Gigabit Society and the European Union has achieved a lot in the past 20 years through liberalisation. Pro-competitive access regulation has been and remains instrumental.
At this occasion M. Gijs Phoelich, Chairman of ECTA says:
“The birth of liberalisation and competition was intended to have positive effects in terms of economic growth, innovation and consumer benefits. Now, after 20 years of fully liberalised markets we have not only achieved these goals, we have exceeded them by far! The dynamics of the past 20 years would have been unthinkable without competition. ECTA and its members have been leading actors in this process and are committed to maintaining a competitive marketplace.”
With a political agreement on the Code having been achieved last night, ECTA recalls that competition can never be taken for granted and tremendous achievements have been made under the current framework. Hence, looking forward, Member States, NRAs and the European Commission will all have to take on the responsibility of ensuring that their decisions and interpretation of the Code will safeguard effective and sustainable competition and that there is no unwarranted discontinuity with existing rules and practices.
To this effect, Luc Hindryckx, Director General of ECTA commented: “The right balance between infrastructure investment and service competition is the precondition to allow electronic communications and all other connectivity-enabled sectors to release their innovation potential through the opportunities that choice in telecom and digital services offers them.”
ECTA members remain engaged and committed to contribute to the achievement of a globally leading Digital Society.
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ECTA members are united in their belief that competition is the best driver of efficient investments and the greatest enabler of innovation, choice and benefits for citizens and businesses, as well as for the European economy overall. This is the key message that ECTA and its members promote in the discussions about the proposed European Electronic Communications Code.
For further information on the contents of this press release and ECTA's positions, contact: Luc Hindryckx, Executive Director, +32 (0)2 290 0102
Follow ECTA's latest views and activities on the Code and other subjects at:@twECTA 
