Your voice in Europe - recent open consultations


Communications providers, network owners and consumers:

The consultation on proposals for the Next Generation Fund is looking for proposals about ways to implement the next generation super-fast broadband. The current connectivity is delivered through a variety of fibre optic technologies, but in the future will also be delivered through wireless means.

The Next Generation Fund wants to deliver this technology to 90% of the UK households and is seeking to maximise synergies to ensure that every community has access to a broadband connection of at least 2Mbps.

Proposals are meant to identify all the issues and evidence required to deliver this fund and to determine its full scope. Please visit the following website if you want to contribute to this consultation due to your expertise or knowledge in this sector:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page54155.html
The deadline is 1 April 2010.


The New Services Directive came into force on 28 December 2009. Around two thirds of businesses in the services sector are affected by it.

To ensure that the improvements are made in the most effective way Member States will evaluate each other’s success in removing barriers to service providers from other Member States operating in their territory.

They will also evaluate the justifications Member States make to keep the need for service providers to have specific professional qualifications where they feel this is necessary. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is taking part in this ‘mutual evaluation’ process for the UK early in 2010.

BIS expects to have a lot of material to evaluate and would like guidance from UK businesses as to the areas it should focus on to get the best results for UK service providers. If you would like to share your views with BIS, please follow this link: http://www.enterpriseeurope-se.eu/contact-us/the-services-directive