France’s Hollande raises prospect of regulatory integration

French president François Hollande has once more raised the possibility of integration of the country’s media and telecom regulators.

Speaking at a colloquium organized by media regulator the CSA at the end of last week, Hollande said it was time to take French regulator forward in the sense of making it more integrated, as was the case in other European countries. Hollande said he had charged culture minister Fleur Pellerin and economy minister Emmanuel Macron with delivering proposals.

Some sort of integration of the CSA and telecom regulator ARCEP was first proposed two years ago, but came to nothing. CSA president Olivier Schrameck said at the beginning of last year that he had an ambition to reinforce cooperation between his organisation and ARCEP.

French press have speculated that the timing of Hollande’s speech could be connected to the fact that the term of office of ARCEP’s current president, Jean-Ludovic Silicani, is set to expire at the beginning of next year.