4International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference 2019
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Committee’s assessment |
Politically important |
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(a) Not cleared from scrutiny; further information requested; scrutiny waiver granted (b) Cleared from scrutiny. |
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Document details |
(a) Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19); (b) Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15). |
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Legal base |
(a) Article 100 TFEU, Article 114 TFEU, Article 218(9) TFEU; Ordinary Legislative Procedure; QMV; (b) Article 114 TFEU, Article 218(9) TFEU; Ordinary Legislative Procedure; QMV. |
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Department |
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport |
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Document Number |
(40502), official text not yet received; (36909) 9455/15, COM(2015) 234 |
Summary and Committee’s conclusions
4.1The European Commission’s draft Council Decision, which has been designated limité on the basis that it involves coordinating an EU position in an external organisation and sharing the draft Decision could therefore undermine that position in negotiations, sets out the negotiating positions to be taken on behalf of the EU by Member States at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19), which will take place between 28 October and 22 November 2019 in Egypt.
4.2World radiocommunication conferences (WRC) are held every three to four years. It is the job of WRC to review, and, if necessary, revise the ITU Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits. These revisions become binding on the parties in accordance with Article 4(3) of the ITU Constitution.
4.3The agenda for WRC-19 contains over thirty items and issues covering wireless and broadband connectivity, satellite services, transport and scientific use of radio spectrum.
4.4Each of the 193 Members of the ITU has a vote at the WRC. In practice, individual states tend to develop and coordinate negotiations within regional blocks. There are six recognised regional groups, and the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) is the relevant one for Europe. CEPT is a pan-European body including 48 countries, rather than an EU body. The EU is a “sector member” of the ITU, not a full member, so it is unable to negotiate on its own behalf.
4.5In the past, the Commission issued a Communication, which was followed by non-binding Council Conclusions on the positions to be taken by EU Member States. However, before the most recent WRC in 2015, the Commission issued a proposal for a Council Decision, which upon adoption was binding on all Member States. The Commission justified this on the basis that “All EU Member States are Parties to the Radio Regulations, and at least some of the revisions may affect common EU rules or alter their scope. Therefore, although the Union is not a full member of the ITU, it is necessary to decide on positions to be taken on the Union’s behalf”. The UK, Czech Republic, France and Germany challenged this rationale, and initially succeeded in persuading the Commission to withdraw its proposal and persuading the Presidency (Luxembourg) to propose draft Council Conclusions (which, unlike a Council Decision, are not legally binding), which were adopted in October 2015. In December 2015 the Commission challenged the proposed Conclusions in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which ruled in the Commission’s favour.16 The end result is that the courts have deemed Council Decision to be the most appropriate means of setting a common position for WRC, rather than Council Conclusions.
4.6The proposed Decision sets out positions to be adopted on behalf of the EU in relation to ten of the WRC-19 Agenda items and provides that Member States must ensure that any relevant amendments comply with EU law and do not bear any prejudice to its future foreseeable development.
4.7On 5 April 2019 the Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries (Margot James MP) at DCMS laid an un-numbered EM in Parliament for scrutiny. The text of the document is classified as limité and as such is unavailable for publication, meaning that the Explanatory Memorandum can only provide limited detail on the proposal at this stage. This is because it concerns negotiations on a common position for EU Member States to take in international negotiations at WRC-19 on items affecting EU rules, and as such remains confidential to Member States. However, the Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries has provided the Committee with a version of the text in confidence.
4.8In a letter dated 21 May 2019, the Minister also wrote to the Committee to update it that discussions at working group level had progressed quickly and that “there is broad support for the aims of the proposal among most Member States”. The Minister states that, on this basis, the Romanian Presidency plans to bring forward the timetable for this draft Decision and hold a vote to approve the Decision at the Telecommunications Council on 7 June.
4.9The Minister states that the Presidency has set out plans to bring this draft Decision to the Telecoms Council for a vote for adoption on 7 June and that “the UK will be involved in the finalisation of the Council Decision, and will be able to vote on this, unless the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified before 1 June and the UK enters the implementation period.”
4.10The Minister states that “although the text is generally in line with the UK’s objectives, there are some areas where we have sought to refine it further” and provides an overview of how the Government has engaged, as well as the changes which have been made. The Minister concludes that:
As the proposed Decision on most of these agenda items now broadly aligns with the UK’s preferred approach, I wish to vote in favour of adoption at Telecoms Council on 7 June. I understand that the current text also has the broad support of most Member States.
4.11We have taken note of the Minister’s assessment that the proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) “broadly aligns” with the UK’s preferred approach, and that the Minister therefore intends to vote in favour of adoption at Telecoms Council on 7 June.
4.12The Minister has, in confidence, provided the Committee with a copy of the draft proposal for a Decision, as well as a summary of its contents and changes which have been made to it in response to UK concerns. The Committee will report on these elements of the proposal in due course when its limité status (intended to preserve the confidentiality of the negotiating position in advance of the negotiations) has been lifted.
4.13On EU exit we note that, unless the UK negotiates a future relationship with the EU which entails ongoing integration with EU radio spectrum rules—which currently appears improbable, given that the Government specifically seeks the freedom to diverge from the EU in digital policy—then it will cease, when it leaves the EU, to be bound by EU Decisions on negotiating positions at ITU World Radiocommunication Conferences, as well as by EU radio spectrum rules. The Minister indicates only that, post-exit, “the Government will consider the appropriate degree of alignment with CEPT that is right for the UK.”
4.14However, the Government’s separate Explanatory Memorandum17 on the EU exit statutory instrument relating to the radio spectrum regulations18 states that radio spectrum “is a policy area where continued alignment with the EU is beneficial to UK consumers and businesses alike … due to the increased scale of the European market and the geographical proximity of neighbouring countries where spectrum harmonisation is beneficial”. Furthermore, the Minister acknowledges in her Explanatory Memorandum that the European Union represents the largest block within CEPT and the Council Decision will therefore exert a considerable influence on CEPT positions, and that, although CEPT positions are not binding on members, “presenting individual positions at WRC is likely to have minimal influence”. Our assessment is therefore that, while the Government does not rule out divergence from EU arrangements, it accepts that the dictates of geography, the nature of radio spectrum, and the mechanics of bloc voting at the World Radiocommunication Conferences suggest that, in practice, the Government will largely continue to follow CEPT, and, indirectly, EU radio spectrum positions in the ITU, and will also continue to retain substantial alignment with EU radio spectrum policy, within the common framework of the ITU Radio Regulations.
4.15We grant the Government a scrutiny waiver to vote in favour of this proposal at Telecommunications Council on 7 June, but request a thorough update on the outcome and the extent to which it aligns with the UK’s preferred outcome as set out in the Minister’s letter, as soon as the document ceases to be Limité. Until then, we retain this document under scrutiny. We draw this report to the attention of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. We clear document (b), which relates to WRC-15, from scrutiny.
Full details of the documents
(a) Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19): (40502), Official text not yet received; (b) Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15): (36909) 9455/15, COM(2015) 234.
Previous Committee Reports
Thirtieth Report HC 342–xxix (2015—2016), chapter 4 (27 April 2016); Sixth Report HC 342–vi (2015–16), chapter 4 (21 October 2015); First Report HC 342–i (2015–16), chapter 12 (21 July 2015).
16 Case C-687/15, European Commission v Council of the European Union.
17 Explanatory Memorandum to the Radio Spectrum (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (26 November 2018).
18 The Radio Spectrum (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/1385).
Published: 11 June 2019