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The 15th plenary meeting of the EaPeReg Network

The 15th plenary meeting of the EaPeReg Network (Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network) was held in an online format on July 2, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 15th Plenary meeting of EaPeReg, initially intended to take place in Baku (Azerbaijan) on May 7, 2020, was postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak. Later, it was decided to organize a virtual Plenary Meeting on July 2, 2020. Organizational support for the meeting was provided by Cecoforma with the financial support of the European Commission.

The event was attended by 40 participants - representatives of telecommunication regulatory bodies from 17 countries (6 Eastern Partnership countries and EU MS incl.: Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Ireland, Hungary) and the representatives of the International Telecommunication Union, the European Commission, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, as well as by the representatives of the World Bank Group and EU4Digital experts from E&Y.

The main goal of the plenary meeting was to discuss the following topics:

• Assessment of EaPeReg work in the first half of 2020
• EaPeReg 2020 activities and external cooperation
• EWGs (IRB EWG, REWG, SEWG) reports
• Presentation of the EU4Digital Facility experts on project activities
• Information regarding HDM Panel and Ministerial Meeting
• Future development of EaPeReg website
• Establishment of permanent office of EaPeReg
• Information concerning next plenary meeting

The event was moderated by Ms. Ulkar Sadigova, the representative of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies (MTCHT) of Azerbaijan.

The EaPeReg Chair (Mr. Karol Krzywicki, Deputy President of UKE, Poland) and Vice-Chair for 2020 (Mr. Elmir Velizadeh, Deputy Minister of the MTCHT, Azerbaijan), as well as the BEREC Chair for 2020 (Mr. Dan Sjöblom) and the EC representative (Vassilis Kopanas, DG Connect) made welcome speeches.

The agenda included discussions on the EaPeReg’s international cooperation and joint activities with BEREC and ITU, so that the meeting continued with the intervention of both these organizations’ officials as well as EaPeReg representatives. On the cooperation with BEREC, it was suggested to organise joint sessions on the common topics for both parties during the meetings set back-to-back with BEREC. Regarding this matter, it was stated that the Chairs of EWGs will continue online discussions with BEREC representatives. Regarding cooperation with ITU, the newly launched by ITU project on mapping broadband infrastructure and services as well as topics regarding 5G roll-out in European region were mentioned among the main priorities for cooperation between the two parties.

Representatives of the World Bank made progress report on project activities related to broadband strategy and infrastructure mapping. The E&Y experts had the progress report on international roaming, NRA independence and spectrum development after the WB presentation.

Thereafter, the EaPeReg EWGs’ Chairs presented groups’ activities reports on progress that was made during the first half of 2020, as well as the main plans for the second half of the year.

The IRB EWG Chair informed the Plenary about the launch of the broadband mapping project in February 2020 and about the adoption of the new rules of procedure of the group. The adoption of the Methodology on the assessment of the independence of the NRAs and the fulfillment of the study on this topic were also mentioned. In the upcoming period of time, the IRB EWG will analyze the results of the study and agree with the EY experts the structure and content of the report that will summarize the results of the study.

The REWG Chair, in her turn, informed the Plenary that during the first semester of 2020 the group closely cooperated with the EU4Digital experts on preparation of the draft RRA based on the Roadmap towards RRA, which is now in the process of national consultation with stakeholders in EaP countries. During the second semester of 2020 REWG will assist EaP countries with national consultations with stakeholders for completing the process by the end of September. Another very important track for the REWG is the EaP-EU Roaming Study which should be launched in 2020.

The Spectrum EWG Chair informed the Plenary about the questions and topics of the recent 10^th meeting, which was organized in virtual format on June 18^th. Information on future plans and topics, such as spectrum and infrastructure sharing, emission control and necessity of emission standards revision for EaP countries in the scope of SEWG or/and even broader context were outlined.

The second part of the meeting was dedicated mainly to organizational issues, including information regarding the HDM Panel and the Ministerial Meeting, EaPeReg website, establishment of permanent office of EaPeReg and information concerning next plenary meeting.

The meeting ending was preceded by closing remarks of Mr. Karol Krzywicki, Mr. Vassilis Kopanas, and Mr. Elmir Velizadeh.