Berlin/Brussels, 09.09.2024 – Lisia Mix, Head of Federal and European Policy at the German Broadband Association (BREKO), comments on the “Draghi Report” published today on behalf of the European Commission:

“With regard to the telecommunications industry, BREKO shares neither the diagnosis nor the recommendations for action in the Draghi Report.

As with the “Letta Report” published in April and the EU Commission’s White Paper on the future of the telecommunications industry, Mario Draghi does not provide a sound argument as to why a more consolidated telecommunications market with a few large players would lead to more investment.

Quite the opposite: in Germany, the competitors of the former monopolist Telekom were the ones who got the fiber optic expansion rolling in the first place through their investments and are currently responsible for more than 60% of the expansion. European telecommunications regulation in favor of a few large corporations would be a major threat to competition, consumer prices and the expansion targets in Germany and Europe.

We also take a critical view of the proposals to dismantle existing ex ante regulations in the telecommunications market and to define markets at EU level rather than nationally. In view of Deutsche Telekom’s continuing market power, the telecommunications industry in Germany still needs strong regulation in order to enable fair competition. The European telecommunications markets are too different for “one size fits all” regulation.