Berlin/Brussels, 12.02.2025 Today, the EU Commission will publish its work program for 2025. Lisia Mix, Head of Federal and European Policy at the German Broadband Association (BREKO), explains:

“With the announced reduction in bureaucracy, the Commission is sending an important signal to ease the burden on companies in the EU. The planned “omnibus simplification package”, which aims to streamline reporting obligations in the areas of sustainability and taxonomy, is a first step towards reducing bureaucracy. This package, which has already been announced for the first quarter of 2025, comes at exactly the right time to make the inclusion of the construction and operation of fiber optic networks as a sustainable investment in the EU taxonomy, as demanded by BREKO, as simple as possible from the outset.

Although the EU Commission’s intention to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness by harmonizing the internal market is understandable in principle, it harbours considerable risks for fair competition and thus the further development of the telecommunications sector. After all, the diversity in the European telecommunications markets – defamed as problematic fragmentation in the reports by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi – is one of the great strengths of this sector: the many small and medium-sized competitors of the ex-monopolists are the ones who are driving forward the expansion of fiber optics in many member states. Particularly in the planned review of European merger control and the draft Digital Networks Act planned for the end of 2025, the EU Commission must ensure fair competitive conditions for all market participants. To this end, it is necessary to take into account the very different circumstances in the individual member states. A “one size fits all” approach and a scaling back of regulation would have serious negative effects in Germany, where the incumbent’s competitors are responsible for over 60% of fiber optic expansion.

It is positive that the EU Commission wants to focus more on the resilience of digital infrastructures. When it comes to protecting submarine cables, it is particularly important that the EU provides financial resources for setting up the necessary redundancies and other preventive measures to counter acts of sabotage. With regard to the digital infrastructure on land, the extent to which current transparency regulations jeopardize the security of infrastructures should also be discussed.”