What to expect when you’re expecting a new Commission

The vote confirms that digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes will be replaced by two men, Andrus Ansip and Günther Oettinger. Spectrum matters are set to be within Oettinger’s “digital economy and society” portfolio, but Ansip will be able to lean in on items to do with building the “digital single market”.

As far as we’re aware, Ansip’s only connection to spectrum prior to this appointment is a four-year stint as chairman of the board of Estonia’s Radio Tartu in the 1990s. At his parliamentary hearing – when MEPs question candidates for European Commission posts – he said that “in relation to spectrum, maximum harmonisation at EU level is needed”.

However, he added that he believed “more in voluntary co-operation than in the use of power”. He also said the 700 MHz band is “needed for broadband” but pointed out that some “big” neighbouring countries (i.e. Russia) use the band for military purposes.

Spectrum did not come up in Oettinger’s hearing but his CV shows he was an alternate member of the executive board of German regional public broadcaster Südwestrundfunk until 2003. He has also been on the advisory council of Initiative D21, a charity that seeks to address the digital divide in Germany.

The approval of the new Commission means that Kroes’s speech to the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam yesterday was her last as a commissioner. “Steelie” Neelie said that if she were to have her term again, she would be even tougher on those in the telecoms business.

“I would have pushed the telco industry harder in the face of inevitable changes in the digital value chain,” she said, later adding that European leaders have “shot themselves in the foot” by failing to create a digital single market.

Europe’s spectrum users will have to wait a little longer to find out if her successors are men of steel.

Toby Youell, PolicyTracker

23/10/2014