EU scales back plan for telecommunications regulator

The European Commission on Thursday scaled back plans to create a Europe-wide telecommunications regulator, apparently making a tactical retreat as it attempted to win support for more controversial measures to regulate the sector. At a meeting of telecommunications ministers in Luxembourg, Viviane Reding, the commission member who oversees the industry, conceded that her proposals would have to be scaled back, admitting that they had faced "a lot of opposition" from European Union member states. Nevertheless, plans to replace the existing network of national regulators with a still-to-be-defined new agency will proceed. The proposed new body, however, will not merge with the European Network and Information Security Agency, or Enisa, which oversees the security of telecommunications networks, and is likely to have a staff of 50, or half of what Reding had proposed. Though the decision was a setback for the commission, the EU-wide regulator was just one element of a wide-ranging package of measures designed to overhaul the regulatory system.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/12/business/regulate.php