The Council of the European Union accepted on 26 July the part of draft amending budget number 2 to the EU’s 2010 general budget which concerns the body of European regulators for electronic communications (BEREC). The draft amending budget provides for the necessary modifications to the BEREC establishment plan to enable the European Commission to hire staff following the adoption of a legal basis for the setting up of this body. The modifications do not require additional financial provisions, as the corresponding administrative appropriations have already been authorised under the 2010 budget.

In January 2010, BEREC took over the work of its predecessor, the European Regulators Group (ERG). It is a body made up of the 27 national regulators for the sector and will be assisted by an office that will provide professional and administrative support. According to a source at the new structure, around 20 to 30 people will be recruited. BEREC will assist the Commission with its work to tackle the remaining divergences and to ensure that the member states implement EU rules consistently. The new body will not be fully operational until around May 2011, to give member states time to transpose the new telecoms directives.

The issue of the seat of the body has been resolved on 31 May (Europolitics 3988). The ERG secretariat was in Brussels and the national regulators would have prefered to continue to come to work in the EU capital to be close to the EU institutions and experts in Brussels, as well as European associations of telecoms operators. However, the Council agreed on the candidacy of Riga in Latvia as the seat of BEREC.