L 336/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 30.12.2000 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) REGULATION (EC) No 2887/2000 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 December 2000 on unbundled access to the local loop (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (1), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (%), Whereas: 1) The conclusions of the European Council of Lisbon of 23 and 24 March 2000 note that, for Europe to fully seize the growth and job potential of the digital, knowl- edge-based economy, businesses and citizens must have access to an inexpensive, world-class communications infrastructure and a wide range of services. The Member States, together with the Commission, are called upon to work towards introducing greater competition in local access networks before the end of 2000 and unbundling the local loop, in order to help bring about a substantial reduction in the costs of using the Internet. The Feira European Council of 20 June 2000 endorsed the proposed ‘e-Europe’ Action Plan which identifies unbundled access to the local loop as a short-term priority. Local loop unbundling should complement the existing provisions in Community law guaranteeing universal service and affordable access for all citizens by enhancing competition, ensuring economic efficiency and bringing maximum benefit to users. (') Opinion delivered on 19 October 2000 (not yet published in the Official Journal). (%) Opinion of the European Parliament of 26 October 2000 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Decision of the Council of 5 December 2000. () The ‘local loop’ is the physical twisted metallic pair circuit in the fixed public telephone network connecting the network termination point at the subscriber's prem- ises to the main distribution frame or equivalent facility. As noted in the Commission's Fifth Report on the imple- mentation of the telecommunications regulatory package, the local access network remains one of the least competitive segments of the liberalised telecommu- nications market. New entrants do not have widespread alternative network infrastructures and are unable, with traditional technologies, to match the economies of scale and the coverage of operators designated as having significant market power in the fixed public telephone network market. This results from the fact that these operators rolled out their metallic local access infrastruc- tures over significant periods of time protected by exclusive rights and were able to fund investment costs through monopoly rents. The European Parliament Resolution of 13 June 2000 on the Commission communication on the 1999 Communications review stresses the importance of enabling the sector to develop infrastructures which promote the growth of electronic communications and e-commerce and the importance of regulating in a way that supports this growth. It notes that the unbundling of the local loop currently concerns mainly the metallic infrastructure of a dominant entity and that investment in alternative infrastructures must have the possibility of ensuring a reasonable rate of return, since that might facilitate the expansion of these infrastructures in areas where their penetration is still low. The provision of new loops with high capacity optical fibre directly to major users is a specific market that is developing under competitive conditions with new investments. This Regulation therefore addresses access to metallic local loops, without prejudice to national obligations regarding other types of access to local infra- structures.