Hopes for telecoms are high as Ireland prepares to assume the Irish Presidency

An open letter from Connect Europe and Telecoms Industry Ireland argues this is real chance for “a more ambitious, more coherent and more investment-friendly connectivity agenda”

Here is a joint statement by Connect Europe (formerly ETNO) and the Telecommunications Industry Ireland, issued today. The Presidency of the Council of the European Union lasts six months. The following is arguably a triumph of hope over experience, given how slow the EU is and that the Presidency of the Council of the EU only lasts six months. We reproduced it here in reverse order, starting with the specific requests before moving to the general observations.

Ireland is well placed to bring focus, pragmatism and momentum to this agenda. 

On the Digital Networks Act, we call on the Irish Presidency to help drive a framework that:

• Delivers simplification and harmonisation, cutting duplicative and outdated rules, reducing fragmentation, and ensuring a genuine level playing field across the digital ecosystem. 
• Strengthens long-term spectrum certainty, with predictable and proportionate rules that support investment, scale and innovation, including early clarity on future bands and next-generation networks. 
• Modernises open internet rules, preserving core principles while adapting them to technological evolution, enabling innovation in advanced networks and supporting Europe’s industrial digitalisation. 
• Ensures proportionate and coherent end-user rules, maintaining strong consumer protection while avoiding unnecessary duplication, reducing complexity, and supporting a more investment-friendly telecom framework. 

On the Cybersecurity Act, we call on the Irish Presidency to help promote an approach that:

• Ensures supply chain security measures are strictly risk-based and proportionate, while fully respecting Member States’ competence in national security matters. 
• Provides predictability for long-term network investment, by carefully taking into account the impact on resilience, service continuity, competition, legal certainty as well as Europe’s overall investment capacity.

Europe’s digital future will be built on the strength of its networks. If Europe wants to compete, innovate and remain resilient, policy must now match that ambition. The Irish Presidency has a real opportunity to help shape that next chapter.”

“Europe is entering a decisive phase in shaping its digital future. As Ireland prepares to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, it has a timely opportunity to help steer a more ambitious, more coherent and more investment-friendly connectivity agenda for Europe. This will require improving the current draft of the Digital Networks Act and correcting the course on investment-depressing measures in the Cybersecurity Act.”

The letter’s general observations

Telecommunications is no longer a sectoral issue. It is a strategic enabler of Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, innovation and security. As highlighted by the reports of Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, Europe’s ability to lead in AI, cloud, advanced manufacturing, digital public services and the green transition will depend on the strength, scale and sustainability of its digital infrastructure. 

Yet Europe still operates within a fragmented and outdated regulatory environment that too often discourages long-term investment, limits scale and slows innovation. At a time of rising geopolitical tensions and intensifying global competition, Europe cannot afford to remain stuck in a cycle of underinvestment and regulatory complexity. The next phase of EU telecom policy must help create the right conditions for a stronger, more unified and future-ready European telecom market. 

In this context, the proposed Digital Networks Act represents a strategic opportunity to reset Europe’s connectivity framework. If ambitiously strengthened during the legislative process, it can support faster network deployment, greater regulatory coherence, stronger investment capacity and a more competitive and sovereign digital Europe. The DNA should not be a technical codification exercise. It should be a competitiveness instrument, one that restores investment confidence, enables scale, simplifies rules and helps secure Europe’s technological future. 

At the same time, the review of the Cybersecurity Act must reinforce Europe’s network resilience and security in a way that is proportionate, risk-based and operationally workable. Europe needs a cybersecurity approach that strengthens trust and preparedness without creating unnecessary duplication, unintended market disruption or barriers to investment. Security and competitiveness must advance together.