On Monday, 30 March 2020, ecta held its Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) followed by a Board meeting. The OGM elected Carl Grivner, Chief Executive Officer of Colt Technology Services and Dr Marc Schütze, Member of the Executive Board of Drillisch Netz AG, a company of 1&1 Drillisch AG, as new Directors of the Board of ecta.

The Board of Directors re-elected Emmanuel Forest for a further term of office as Chairman of the Board and elected Neven Petkov Dilkov, Managing Director, Neterra Ltd. as Vice-Chairman.

In addition, the OGM not only reviewed the ecta achievements for 2019 and discussed the 2020 priorities and Action Plan, it also approved ecta’s strategic vision for the future.

The ecta vision results from a strategic planning exercise with the active involvement of ecta members and led by Director General, Luc Hindryckx. It is expressed as follows:

“In a competitive European digital sector, every citizen is included and operators are drivers for innovation that guarantee Europe’s competitiveness and digital sovereignty. By promoting a pro-competitive European regulatory framework, ecta wants to be the driving force behind it by capitalising on its expertise and the active collaboration and engagement with its members.”

Commenting on the new strategic vision, Emmanuel Forest said: “Having to deal with a new Commission, it was time to renew our message and vision. More than ever, we must reaffirm the importance of competition to promote a vibrant Gigabit society. As we are fully committed to providing citizens with a high quality and continuity of telecommunications services in the Covid-19 crisis and beyond, we are fully engaged in developing those services to assist our customers in the economic post-crisis recovery”

Neven Dilkov, focussing on the importance to increase competition in the business markets, commented: “I am happy to be able to strengthen my engagement with ecta as Vice-Chairman. The European telecommunication market needs a great competition improvement and ecta, as a key representative of the interests of small and medium-sized operators in Europe, will continue to work with the European Commission and the Parliament to make this process much more successful. I commit to everyone in the industry to contribute and help create much better conditions in all markets in Europe. Competition and hard work will defeat monopolies everywhere.“

Commenting on the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, Carl Grivner said: “The dramatic and unexpected shift in how most of us are now working and living happened swiftly and is set to continue for the foreseeable future. This is why I am engaged within the ecta Board to promote the  pro-competitive values that ecta defends. They demonstrate their relevance now more than ever, especially in the business markets, where resilient and scalable connectivity to data centres is key for service providers and other critical societal actors”.

Dr Marc Schütze added: “Competitive telecommunications operators have been the drivers for increased resilience and redundancy of fixed and mobile networks, which now allow economic activity to continue, alongside online education and social contact, besides the fundamental role of allowing citizens to remain updated on the crisis.”

ecta, its membership and the Board of Directors wish to express their fullest appreciation to Martin Witt, whose term of office as Board Director and Vice-Chairman came to an end, for his engagement and valuable contributions.

Furthermore, in the middle of this unprecedented pandemic crisis, ecta and the Board of Directors reiterate the engagement of  ecta members that are all hands on deck working around the clock watching out for the networks and their users. Competitive telecommunications operators hugely contribute to network resilience and redundancy to assure service continuity not only for the citizens and enterprises - large and small - but also ensuring resilient connectivity to the data centres and for those on the front line, the health actors.

The members of the ecta Board are:

Emmanuel Forest, Executive Vice-President European and Institutional Affairs, Bouygues Group - Chairman

Neven Dilkov, Managing Director, Neterra Ltd - Vice-Chairman

Cem Mehmet Çelebiler, Managing Director, Turknet Iletiçim Hizmetleri A.S.

Carl Grivner, CEO, Colt Technology Services

Dr. Marc Schütze, Member of the Executive Board, Drillisch Netz AG

Meinrad Spenger, CEO, Masmovil

Malgorzata Zakrzewska, Director of Public Affairs, PLAY

ecta members are united in their belief that competition is the best driver of efficient investments and the greatest enabler of innovation, choice and benefits for citizens and businesses, as well as for the European economy overall. This is the key message that ecta and its members promote.

For further information on the contents of this press release and ecta’s positions, contact:

Luc Hindryckx, Director General, +32 (0)2 290 0102

Follow ecta’s latest views and activities:@twECTA

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