BRUSSELS -- Radio spectrum use must be co-ordinated and harmonised across the EU to enable citizens to benefit from new electronic services like mobile broadband internet access, says the Industry Committee. In reports approved on Monday night, MEPs advocate setting up a new European body of national telecommunications regulators to ensure that measures apply consistently EU wide and also call for incentives to invest in new infrastructure, including "next generation" access networks.

Spectrum owned by Member States is needed for many wireless services, from broadcasting and mobile TV through mobile communications and broadband internet to new electronic services such as e-government or e-health. To optimise frequency use and avoid harmful interference among services, Member States must co-operate with each other and the Commission in the strategic planning, co-ordination and harmonisation of radio spectrum use, says the report by Catherine Trautmann (PES, FR).

The electronic communications framework directive, as amended by the Industry Committee, therefore asks the Commission to table a legislative proposal to establish a "radio spectrum action programme".

The committee calls for a more coherent and integrated approach to allocating "digital dividend" frequencies freed up by the switchover from analogue to digital TV, to be completed by 2012.

European Commission