Telecom operators call on Ireland’s EU Presidency to turn Europe’s connectivity agenda into a competitiveness agenda

Brussels, 6 July 2026 – Connect Europe welcomes the start of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union at a decisive moment for Europe’s digital future. Ireland can bring focus, pragmatism and momentum to the connectivity files that will shape Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and technological sovereignty for the decade ahead.

Europe’s ambitions on AI, cloud, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and digital public services will only be credible if they are built on world-class connectivity infrastructure. Telecom networks are no longer a sectoral policy issue: they are the foundation of Europe’s economic security, industrial strength and digital leadership.

The Digital Networks Act must now become a real competitiveness instrument, not a technical codification exercise. In line with Connect Europe’s 12-point proposal to turn the DNA into a competitiveness booster, we call on the Irish Presidency to  drive a framework that achieves:

• Long-term spectrum certainty to foster infrastructure deployment. Predictable and much more investment-conducive spectrum conditions are essential to support investment in digital networks. The Council should therefore preserve the move towards unlimited licenses, with a view to creating predictable, legally secure license conditions, proportionate renewal frameworks and early clarity on future bands, including 6G.

• A reformed and modernized access regime. Deregulation should be the default, with intervention limited to exceptional local bottlenecks and remedies that are justified, proportionate, time-bound and investment-supportive. The role of symmetric regulation should be strengthened. 

• Market-driven fibre transition. Fibre migration is already well underway. Policy should support deployment and demand, not impose rigid EU-wide copper switch-off deadlines disconnected from market realities. As also highlighted in a legal opinion on the matter, mandatory switch-off provisions not only raise serious concerns regarding their impact on competition and consumers, but also regarding its compatibility with primary EU law.

• Simplification, harmonisation and level playing field. Cut duplicative rules and reporting burden, avoid new obligations, reduce fragmentation and ensure equivalent services are subject to equivalent rules across the digital ecosystem.

• Legal certainty for innovation in advanced networks. Core net neutrality principles should be extended to all players, but clarifications to the current rules are required in order to allow innovation in advanced 5G, cloud-native architectures, traffic management, quality differentiation and network slicing.

The Irish Presidency will also play a key role in the review of the Cybersecurity Act. Europe needs stronger network resilience and supply chain security, but measures must be strictly risk-based, proportionate and workable, fully respecting national security competences and avoiding duplications, market disruption or new barriers to investment. The current approach to Title IV and high-risk vendors is disproportionate and it imposes punitive operational and economic costs on operators, with the risk of ultimately reducing resilience and security instead of improving it.

Connect Europe members have welcomed the Cloud and AI Development Act. Europe’s cloud and AI ambitions will depend on trusted, resilient and high-capacity connectivity infrastructure. Demand-side measures, public procurement, cloud adoption and AI deployment must be matched by policies that allow European networks to invest, scale and innovate.

Ireland’s Presidency of the EU is an opportunity to turn Europe’s connectivity policy into what it must now become: a driver of growth, security and technological sovereignty.