The Twinning Project and Its Objectives

Vincenzo Lobianco - AGCOM - MS Project Leader

Launching Conference, Tel Aviv, 27 November 2018

Outline

• What is a Twinning Project

• The Objective of the Project with the Ministry of Communication of Israel

• The Twinning Project Consortium and Project Team

• The Twinning Project Organization

• The methodology

• Sustainability

• Question & Answers

What is Twinning Project ?

• Twinning is an EU institution building instrument developed by the Commission and based on partnership cooperation between public administrations of EU Member States and a Beneficiary Country for the achievement of mandatory.

• Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and partner countries, with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results jointly agreed with the Commission, through peer-to-peer activities.

• Projects are built around jointly agreed policy objectives deriving from the joint EU-BC agenda, i.e. combining the EU policy orientations (as set out in the European Commission Progress Reports and/or other policy documents) and the Beneficiary Administration’s efforts for reform (as set out in strategic documents adopted by relevant BC authorities).

• Twinning is based on partnership and genuine cooperation between equal partners.

The objective of the Project with the Ministry of Communication of Israel

• To improve mechanisms to develop a better regulatory environment in the field of telecommunications in Israel, based on European Union (EU) legislation and best practices.

• To strengthen the regulatory capacity of the Israeli Ministry of Communications (MoC) to ensure the continued development of a competitive regulatory climate including the retail and wholesale markets and other forms of network access.

• This includes updating the regulatory framework to ensure fair and effective competition on the telecommunications market in Israel, based on EU Member States’ (MS) experience in the implementation of relevant EU legislation.

The objective of the Project with the Ministry of Communication of Israel

• To reach this objective, the Project is requested :

✓to identify the gaps between the EU regulatory framework and Israeli regulatory practices

✓to formulate means of bringing the regulatory environment in Israel in line with the EU framework in the field of electronic communications where appropriate

• The successful outcome of the Twinning Project will provide a firm basis for Israel to approximate its regulatory practices to EU legislation and best practices, where appropriate, through integration of the project results into national regulatory instruments.

The Project Consortium

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AGCOM

AGCOM is an independent and convergent regulatory authorityestablished in 1997 by Law 249/97

Mission:✓ Foster full competition in the communications markets (electronic communications,

audiovisual, postal services and press)

✓ Protect end users in all markets

✓ Ensure pluralism in the media sector

Tasks:✓ Regulate the markets,

✓ Monitor the operators’ compliance to the obligations,

✓ Enforce its decisions (also through penalties)

AGCOM international experience

TWINNINGS

➢ Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2 Twinnings with the audiovisual regulator, CRA, focusing on data collection, digitalization, market analysis, draft of regulations for convergent services, protection of consumers and copyright (2005-2007)

➢ Egypt: Twinning Project with the NTRA, run in cooperation with the German regulator and focusing on review of legal framework and convergence of media (2008-2011)

➢ Israel: Twinning Project with the Ministry of Communications, run in cooperation with the German and the Spanish regulators, focusing on data collection, consumer protection, enforcement powers, staff training and review of the legal framework (2011-2012)

➢ Jordan: Twinning Project with the telecommunications regulator, TRC, run in cooperation with the French government and the Spanish regulator, focusing on the update of the legal framework, convergence of media (2011-2013)

➢ Tunisia: Twinning Project with the telecommunications regulator, INT, run in cooperation with the French government and the Spanish regulator, focusing on the update of the Tunisian legal framework (2015-ongoing)

Agcom participates regularly to all the EU and international regulators’ platforms in the sectors of audiovisual, telecom, postal services, to improve international cooperation and exchange of best practices.

The experts from AGCOM have a solid experience in dealing with international projects, institution building and share of experience

The German team The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is the German government body responsible for

framing telecommunication policies in Germany and transposing the EU regulatory framework forelectronic communications into national law. Furthermore, its European policy department covers allareas concerning the harmonisation of national with European legislation in Germany.

The Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA) is anindependent higher federal authority in the scope of business of the German Federal Ministry ofEconomic Affairs and Energy and was created in 1998. It is a multisector regulator responsible forregulating the following network industries: telecommunications, post, electricity and gas as well asrailway. Since 2011 it is also responsible for the planning and permitting of high voltage electricitytransmission lines. Today, about 2900 people are working in the Agency at its headquarters in Bonn,Berlin and Mainz and around 45 regional offices dispersed over the whole country. BNetzA is tax-fundedand has a budget of ar. 207m €.

The core task of the Federal Network Agency is to promote competition through sector-specific ex-anteregulation in the telecommunications, postal, electricity, gas and railway markets and to guarantee alevel playing field for all market players by imposing non-discriminatory network access at regulatedprices and by ensuring compliance with the Telecommunications Act, the Postal Act, the Energy Act andthe General Railway Act and the underlying European regulatory frameworks.

BNetzA International experience

➢ Since its creation in 1997 BNetzA is active in the European regulators groups such as IRG, ERG and

since 2010 BEREC which it is chairing in 2016. Also, BNetzA is active in EMERG etc.

➢ BNetzA has participated in 2016 in the OECD peer review of SPRK and is active in the Network of

Economic Regulators (NER)

➢ BNetzA participated in many Twinning Projects, among them the first Twinning Project with the

Israeli Ministry of Communications in 2011/2012, where BNetzA acted as MS Project Leader

➢ BNetzA also performed two Twinning Projects with the Slovenian telecoms regulator

➢ BNetzA’s experts participate in a number of Twinning Projects such as in the Ukraine as STEs,

hosted and participated in numerous TAIEX workshops, in particular also for market surveillance

where BNetzA is recognized as one of the leading regulators in Europe for developing an effective

market surveillance system

SPRK

Established in 2001, SPRK (Sabiedrisko Pakalpojumu RegulēšanasKomisija), the Public Utilities Commission is an autonomousindependent multi-sectoral regulatory authority withresponsibilities in areas of electronic communications, post, electricity,gas and municipal services.

The legal framework enables the SPRK to setup robust regulatorysystem in regulated areas. There are a number of sector specific lawsimplemented by the SPRK, including in the area of electroniccommunications

The SPRK’s mission is to ensure consumer benefit by means ofpromoting sustainable competition and balancing the interests ofconsumers and market participants

SPRK International experience

➢ From 2011 to 2013 the SPRK was working as Junior project leader in a twinning project in

Ukraine with responsibility for complete review of regulatory set up;

➢ The SPRK has been a beneficiary body in 2 twinning projects, including in one with BNetzA

enabling a 360°view of twinning project management challenges

➢ SPRK has provided STEs to several bilateral and multilateral missions

➢ In 2016 June the SPRK participated in a peer review by the European Commission of the

Montenegrin regulatory framework zooming in on regulatory governance and in October in Jordan

in a review related to the SMP framework

➢ Since joining the European Union the SPRK has been active member of the European regulators’

platforms – IRG, ERG/BEREC, Communications Committee, etc.

Vincenzo Lobianco

Annegret GroebelAndrejs Dombrovskis

Ofer Raz-Dror

Project Leaders

Experts

RTA AssistantArsho Belyan

RTARoberto de MartinoAGCOM

RTA Counterpart Adi Koplovitz

MOC

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The Project Team

The Twinning Project Organization

• The Project started on the 26 August 2018

• Completion is expected after 21 months from the start (26 May 2020)

• The Project is composed of 4 Components :

• Component 0 : Public Conference and Visibility actions

• Component 1 : Improved procedures for regulating service provision over networks owned and operated by others are proposed and ready for implementation – Coordinator : Vincenzo Lobianco (AGCOM)

• Component 2 : A broad market surveillance system is developed in order to frequently and regularly check the implementation of the licensing conditions covering all components of the electronic communications market – Coordinator Annegret Groebel (BNetzA)

• Component 3 : The legislative framework and regulatory capacity are improved in accordance with EU MS best practices and with the review of the EU framework in the telecom and audiovisual sectors – Coordinator : Francesco Sciacchitano (AGCOM)

Component 0

Launching Conference

Closing Conference Visibility

Organisation of:

• Kick-off Meeting (Launching Conference)• Closing Conference• Horizontal visibility actionsto ensure full knowledge of the Project and its awareness amongst stakeholders

• Launching and closing conference with the participation of High level officials

• Issues of press releases and cooperation with news and media

• Creation of Project Web site• Visibility actions in support of all Project public events

(workshop, Conferences, etc.)

Tools and Methodology

Goals

www.TwinningMocIsrael.eu

Component 1Improved procedures for regulating service

provision over network owned by

others

• Methodology for the implementation of wholesale markets regulation• Introduction of retail markets regulation• Development of Reference Interconnection Offers (RIO) and procedure

for their approval• Development of mechanisms for infrastructure sharing• Improvement of Consumer protection regulation in a context of retail

regulation including price controls (additional)

•Presentation of the European Electronic Communication framework as reviewed with the latest update (e.g. EU Directive 61/2014) and its implementation in European MS’s

•MS’s and BC experts will jointly identify the EC markets and develop procedures for market analysis and adoption of regulatory obligations on incumbents operators (e.g. the presentation of RIO and definition of its content)

•Study visits for showing practical implementation of wholesale regulation (ULL collocation and interconnection sites, etc.)

Tools and Methodology

Goals

Component 2

Development of a broad market surveillance

system

• Develop an effective enforcement procedure for market surveillance

• Develop guidelines for the migration from the “type approval regime” to a “self-declaration regime” of electronic communications equipment

• Drafting of methodology for review and analysis of the electronic communications market

• Presentation of the relevant European directives (such as the R&TTE/RE Dir.) and its transposition into German law as well as Regulation 765/2008

• Show practical implementation of the market surveillance system in Germany theoretically as well as practically (study visit to the relevant sites in Germany, show examples such as e-commerce investigations)

Tools and Methodology

Goals

Component 3

Improvement of legislative

framework and regulatory capacity

• Review the implementation of the previous Twinning’s results• Improvement of the Israeli legislative framework• Universal Service fund and methodology

• Benchmark with various MS approaches

• Discuss the Review of the EU framework and the DSM strategy and the new challenges (OTTs, NN, IoT)

• Extend the activities to other areas of the communications sector (audio-visual, copyright, privacy, security…)

Tools and Methodology

Goals

Goals for each component

Presentation of MS practices and EU best

practice

Identification of the most suitable approach for

Israel

Implementation of chosenapproach

How to achieve the goals

Working group of experts from different MS

Discussion between MS experts and MOC

Drafting of ad-hoc reports and deliverables for each

activity

Proposed Methodology

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Project Coordination

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• MS RTA and PLs have alreadyworked together

• Solid coordination background (e.g. BEREC, IRG)

.....amongthe MS

• Active role of RTA and RTA Counterpart in all components

…betweenNRAs and

MOC

.

➢Sustainability means that MOC will benefit of the project work andresults long after the Twinning completion

➢The new regulations and updates of existing regulatory provisions aresustainable results by definition. For example:• Sample reference offer (RIO)• Advanced Authorization scheme• Definition of Universal Service provisions and Fund

➢These results together with the involved methodology should allguarantee project sustainability

Sustainability

Contacts

• MS Project Leader: Vincenzo Lobianco - v.lobianco@agcom.it

• BC Project Leader: Ofer Raz-Dror - oferd@moc.gov.il

• Junior Project Leader: Annegret Groebel - Annegret.Groebel@BNetzA.de

• Junior Project Leader: Andrejs Dombrovskis - Andrejs.Dombrovskis@sprk.gov.lv

• RTA: Roberto de Martino - r.demartino@moc.gov.il

• RTA Counterpart: Adi Koplovitza - koplovitza@moc.gov.il

• RTA Assistant : Arsho Belan – belian@moc.gov.il

• Coordinator Component 1: Vincenzo Lobianco

• Coordinator Component 2: Annegret Groebel

• Coordinator Component 3: Francesco Sciacchitano f.sciacchitano@agcom.it

Thank You for your attention