Political opposition to EU super-regulator plans

A Spanish conservative MEP has dealt a blow to the plans by EU telecom commissioner Viviane Reding to create a Europe-wide super-regulator after a paper criticising the proposal was tabled.

The MEP concerned, Pilar del Castillo, claimed that the new plans added unnecessary red-rape and would be too remote from the local markets it seeks to regulate. The paper is particularly damaging given that the author is the MEP charged with steering Ms. Reding's plans through the EU parliament. Reding has been pushing for a single super-regulator since she initially proposed the idea in late 2006. Under her plan, national regulators would continue to analyse their domestic markets, but the central European regulator's word would be final.

However, Castillo's paper states that, since national conditions differ, a "one-size-fits all approach" is inappropriate. "Furthermore it is not clear that Europe has a single market problem of the size and nature to justify a radical change in institutional set-up."

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