Universal service in telecommunications: assessment criteria for national schemes for the costing and financing

This communication was a supplement (and not a new text) to the Commission communication of 27 November 1996 (COM(96) 608) on assessment criteria for national schemes for the costing and financing of the universal service in telecommunications and guidelines for the Member States with regard to the operation of these schemes. It followed the adoption by the European Parliament of its resolution of 18 September 1997 on the communication in question in which, in substance, Parliament asked about the precise status of that communication. In this instance, Parliament was concerned by the fact that the text of the communication could suggest that new legal obligations could fall upon the Member States with regard to the costing and financing of the universal service in telecommunications in the Member States. In this regard, the supplementary text presented in this document gave definitive clarification of the situation, pointing out that the 1996 communication went no further than a notification to the Member States on the criteria that the Commission would use to assess in Community law the provisions relating to the costing of the universal service and its financing in the national universal service schemes. It therefore sought only to clarify the 'existing' or proposed obligations under the Community framework for telecommunications.�