EVALUATION ROADMAP
Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to share any relevant information that they may have.
Title of the evaluation	Evaluation of State aid rules for broadband infrastructure deployment
Lead DG – responsible unit	DG COMP, Unit C4
Indicative Planning (planned start date and completion date)	Start date: Q2 2020, completion date: Q2 2021
Additional Information	https://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/overview/index_en.html https://ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/ICT/overview_en.html
The Roadmap is provided for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the document, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Context, purpose and scope of the evaluation

Context

High quality telecommunications infrastructure is crucial for connecting and integrating the Union and its remote regions, allowing all users to have access to private and public telecommunications services contributing to social cohesion and supporting a more competitive and sustainable economy. Investments in telecommunications network deployment come primarily from private operators with public support complementing these private initiatives. State aid control in the telecommunications sector plays an important role in developing a co-ordinated investment strategy. The State aid Broadband Guidelines, adopted in 2013 and the relevant provisions of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), adopted in 2014, set out specific criteria for the allocation of public funds for the pro-competitive infrastructure deployment in areas that need it most. They seek to ensure that public support leads to modern infrastructure increasing consumer welfare and reducing the 'digital divide' where commercial operators have no incentive to invest, while avoiding crowding-out of private investments, subsidising local monopolies or discriminating certain technology platforms.

The State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure have helped Member States to channel public support in a pro-competitive manner in line with the objectives set out for 2020 by the Digital Agenda for Europe. These objectives have been updated in 2016 by the Commission in its Gigabit Society Communication, that sets additional and more ambitious targets for telecommunications network deployment by 2025 in line with expected use, market and technological developments: (1) all households should have access to internet connectivity of at least 100 Mbps download upgradable to 1 Gbps; (2) socio-economic drivers such as schools, transport hubs and main providers of public services as well as digitally intensive enterprises should have access to internet connectivity with download and upload speeds of 1 Gbps; (3) uninterrupted 5G coverage for all urban areas and major terrestrial transport paths should be ensured. In February 2020, the Commission published its new EU’s digital strategy (Shaping Europe’s Digital Future). Investments in connectivity to achieve the EU 2025 objectives are the most fundamental building block of this digital transformation and its implementation.

Purpose and scope

In the evaluation, the Commission will analyse how the Broadband Guidelines and the relevant provisions in the GBER have functioned and to what extent they have stimulated the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure and contributed to more competitiveness in the sector. The purpose of the evaluation is also to check to what extent the current rules respond to technological developments as well as socio-economic needs and are appropriate to meet the new EU strategic objectives in terms of connectivity and digital transformation from the perspective of telecommunications infrastructure as described in the Shaping Europe's Digital Future Communication.

The evaluation will provide a basis for a decision about whether a revision of the current State aid rules for broadband infrastructure deployment is necessary.

The evaluation aims thus to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value of the current rules and will be based on the following evaluation questions:

Effectiveness:

·To what extent have the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure achieved their objectives to bridge the broadband 'digital divide' and to accelerate investments in high speed infrastructure adapted to the population’s needs and thus contributed to Digital Agenda for Europe and Gigabit Communication targets.

·To what extent have the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure achieved their objective to adequately support the EU internal market and a level playing field for telecommunications operators of different Member States?

·What have been, if any, the barriers to achieving the desired objectives?

·Have there been any unexpected results after implementing the requirements set by the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure?

Efficiency:

·What are the costs and benefits for the different stakeholders (both monetary and non-monetary) associated with the application of the requirements set by the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure?

·To which extent have the requirements set by the State aid rules for the broadband infrastructure deployment led to more efficient State expenditure?

Relevance:

·To what extent are the objectives of the Broadband Guidelines still justified in view of the EU’s new strategic objectives?

·How well adapted are the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure to respond to technological and market developments?

Coherence:

·To what extent are the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure coherent with each other?

·To what extent are the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure coherent with other EU policies and legislation?

EU added-value

·To what extent have the State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure ensured EU added value for stakeholders?

The timeframe covered by this evaluation is the period since the entry into force of the relevant rules up until the present.

The evaluation will cover the 27 Member States and the United Kingdom regarding aid measures put in place by national authorities in application of the current rules since their entry into force (2013 for the Broadband Guidelines and 2014 for the relevant provisions of the GBER), which were either authorised by the Commission or exempted from the prior authorisation under the relevant GBER provisions.

B. Better regulation

Consultation of citizens and stakeholders

The purpose of the wide-ranging, open consultation is to collect evidence and views from stakeholders in order to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added-value of State aid rules for the deployment of broadband infrastructure.

In addition to the open public consultation, a targeted public consultation will be run in order to collect information on technical, specific provisions of the Guidelines and of the relevant provisions of the GBER. The evidence and views collected will feed the overall evaluation in light of the five above-mentioned criteria.

The main stakeholders identified are Member States, including public authorities such as regional and local authorities, managing authorities, national regulators who apply the Broadband Guidelines and the GBER when granting public support. Other interested parties whose input could be of value are industry, business, workers’ and consumers’ associations, relevant NGOs, research and academia, consultancy and law firms, as well as the general public.

Planned consultation activities include:

·A 16-week open public consultation scheduled for September 2020, which will take the form of a general questionnaire related to the application of the Broadband Guidelines and the relevant GBER provisions. The open public consultation will be published on the Commission’s central public consultations page.

·The separate targeted consultation will be addressed to stakeholders that are directly impacted by those rules, for example Member States, regional or local authorities, or businesses. The targeted public consultation will be launched at the same time as open public consultation and will have the same duration (16 weeks). The targeted consultation will be published on a dedicated webpage on the website of DG Competition.

·For both consultations, the questions will be published in all EU official languages and replies will be welcome in any of those languages.

·In addition, a technical workshop with Member State experts on broadband infrastructure deployment will take place.

·The replies received in the context of the both open and targeted public consultations will be published on the consultation page. The results of all consultation activities will be presented in a synopsis report as an annex to the Staff Working Document on the evaluation.

Data collection and methodology

The evaluation will use data provided by stakeholders, statistical information and internal analyses by the Commission as well as any relevant completed or on-going studies.

In particular, in its internal analysis, the Commission will use, in addition to the results of the public consultation and the targeted stakeholder consultation, including the technical workshop with Member States: data collected in the monitoring and reporting exercises and via Transparency Award Module (TAM); experience from its extensive case practice including authorised and block exempted cases; internal statistics; scoreboard data as well as information received via the network of Broadband Competence Offices. The Commission's internal analysis will be supported by the external studies, including the study tendered out in 2019 aiming at collection of information on the implementation and outcomes of broadband State aid interventions. The report of the study will be published in parallel to the public consultation.

Following the consultations, the internal analyses and the expert study, the Commission will summarise the results of the evaluation in a Staff Working Document.

The evaluation will provide a basis for a decision about whether a revision of the current rules is necessary.