According to Article35 of the BEREC Regulation, BEREC and the BEREC Office may cooperate with competent Union bodies, offices, agencies and advisory groups. As part of the multi-annual work programme, the Board of Regulators shall adopt BEREC’s strategy for relations with those institutions. This document provides an overview of BEREC’s priorities regarding institutional cooperation, with a focus on connectivity/5G and platform regulation.

A working arrangement between the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) and BEREC on 5G roll-out was already established in 2019 with the intention of collaborating on implementation of Article35 EECC, the peer review forum. BEREC will continue to play a supporting role regarding 5G and cybersecurity, and closely cooperate with the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) by contributing to the implementation of the toolbox.

As discussions on platform regulation and the Digital Services Act progress, BEREC will engage with co-legislators and share its technical experiences of telecoms regulation. Other regulatory networks have complementary expertise, and BEREC will investigate ways to exchange views about practical issues of platform regulation. BEREC has already established ties with the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), but it might be meaningful to exchange with other regulatory bodies and networks such as the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the European Competition Network (ECN) and the European Regulators Group for Audio-visual Media Services (ERGA).

In addition to carrying out its advisory duty for all EU institutions, BEREC will furthermore look into ways of collaboration and exchange with other European regulatory cooperation platforms and bodies operating both in adjacent and different economic sectors. These include the ERGP (on e-commerce, cross-border parcel delivery regulation), Eurostat (definition of indicators for data collection), the ESA (European Space Agency) and the EEA (European Environment Agency).

The increasing volume of electronic communications between the EU and the rest of the world shows the global nature of such services and means that policies, legislation and regulation must be seen from a more global perspective. BEREC benefits from the cooperation with NRAs and with international regulator networks, policymakers and institutions involved in communications matters based beyond the EU.

This cooperation allows exchange on cross-border and common issues as well as closely following global trends in technology and changing business models. This enables BEREC to retain its capacity to swiftly and effectively meet challenges. Moreover, regions beyond the EU and non-EU regulators networks have been expressing great interest in the European regulatory approach.

BEREC already has a long history of cooperation with NRAs’ regulatory networks in other regions, namely the EMERG (European Mediterranean Regulators Group), REGULATEL (Latin American Regulators) and EaPeReg (Eastern Partnership Regulators’ Network).

Furthermore, BEREC has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the NRAs of the United States, Canada and India, which are not part of the abovementioned networks.

Finally, BEREC also cooperates in electronic communications matters with other international institutions such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The implementation and permanent evaluation of existing and future agreements and working arrangements is essential for realising BEREC’s ambitions to enhance international cooperation in order to deal with issues across BEREC’s regulatory borders.

In order to enhance efficient use of BEREC’s resources, alternative and more targeted means of cooperation could be explored, with the aim of achieving efficiency gains.

BEREC’s international activities complement the policies of the European Union in terms of both cooperation topics and the priority regions with which to cooperate.

In 2018, the EC initiative Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) was launched to enable legal and regulatory framework development across Africa. BEREC has acknowledged this initiative in its work programmes and has committed itself to supporting this project. BEREC has also contributed technical support to the implementation of the Western Balkans regional roaming agreement following the request of the EC.

BEREC’s strategy with respect to international cooperation is to promote the EU approach to the regulation of electronic communications, and to engage in inter-regional co-operation on matters of mutual interest.

BEREC will continue to support capacity building efforts in the field or telecoms regulation, in particular the promotion of connectivity, economic analysis, access regulation, regulatory processes and consumer empowerment. Priorities will be support for regional bodies EaPeReg, EMERG and Regulatel and the ITU’s General Symposium for Regulators, support for relevant Commission initiatives, and exchanges of views with other MoU partners, the OECD and development banks funding telecom projects.

Regarding Inter-regional co-operation, BEREC’s will identify issues which could productively be pursued on an inter-regional basis and engage with relevant bodies to exchange experiences and seek beneficial outcomes for BEREC’s stakeholders.

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