17 July 2003
Nicole Fontaine, Minister of Industry, is expected to present the draft law for the transposition of electronic communications directives (the so-called "telecoms package") at the Council of Ministers in coming weeks.
The draft law, based on work and consultations conducted in recent months, is currently being examined by the Conseil d'Etat (supreme administrative court and government legal advisor).
Main EU directives regarding electronic communications, which were adopted and published in the first half of 2002, set 24 July 2003 as the deadline for transposition. As a result, the French government began preparing the transposition text for the directives early in the autumn of 2002. This process is now almost complete.
Given the time required for the text to be examined by Parliament, the Minister of Industry and the Autorité de régulation des télécommunications (ART) felt that concerned players-and telecommunications operators on the market in particular-should be informed of the regime applicable in the major areas of regulation between 25 July and the date at which the transposition texts will be adopted in national law. This is the purpose of the document being made public today.
