The EU co-legislators are considering their negotiating positions on the proposed Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA), one of the key elements of EU legislation to support Europe’s digital transformation.

The GIA focuses strictly on the deployment of very high capacity networks and would establish new rules for access to telecoms physical infrastructure, public assets and telecoms towers. The GIA also addresses the digitisation of administrative procedures, as well as aiming to speed up the permitting process.

Cullen International’s “Tracker” covers the latest developments related to the GIA. It includes overviews of the draft proposals of the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council, and is regularly updated to reflect the latest proposed amendments and positions.

The European Commission proposed that the GIA should be an EU regulation with direct application, not requiring transposition by individual member states into national law.

The legislators differ in their views on the roles of the EU and member states. Parliament and the Council propose setting minimum GIA requirements that EU member states must follow, but allow for additional measures to reflect national circumstances.

The Commission proposed to set EU-level guidelines to clarify specific GIA rules. However, the Spanish presidency of the Council proposed addressing any GIA issues at the national level, instead of at EU level.

Under all current draft proposals, if authorities’ fail to respond within the deadline set by the GIA, this would be considered as a tacit approval of permits and rights of way.

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