EU Digital Agenda: What to look out for after summer 2016

On 6 June, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) presented its draft 'Guidelines on the Implementation by National Regulators of European Net Neutrality Rules'. Subsequently, BEREC launched a public consultation on said draft Guidelines, which was closed on 22 July 2016 with almost half a million contributions received.

The finalised Guidelines will be adopted at an extraordinary plenary meeting on 25 August and will be officially launched on 30 August.

The EU Commission is expected to present its Communication on the copyright reform on 21 September.

The reform will notably include revisions of the InfoSoc Directive (2001/29/EC) and the Satellite and Cable Directive (93/83/EEC), which succeed the publication of the legislative proposal on cross-border portability of online content services in December 2015.

It is expected that the Commission will present its telecoms reform package on 21 September, including the EU Commission's Communication 'Towards connectivity for a European Gigabit Society', which was already leaked in July, as well as legislative proposals to reform the current EU telecoms legal framework.

These developments follow the EU Commission's Public consultation on the evaluation and the review of the regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services, which ended in December 2015.

On 25 May, the EU Commission adopted a new legislative proposal amending the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), following the Public consultation held from July to September 2015. The proposal is now under review by the European Parliament, with a deadline to file amendments on 13 October. The reviewed AVMSD is expected to be finalised by the summer of 2017.

On 30 November, the EU Commission is expected to present a legislative proposal on the free flow of data, with the aim to promote the free movement of data in the EU, notably by eliminating restrictions to data location and access.

The Commission's Free Flow of Data initiative builds further on the results of the Public consultation on the regulatory environment for data and cloud computing and the Consultation workshop on the Free Flow of Data held in May.