Director

Mr László Ignéczi

The image shows Laszlo Igneczi, current BEREC Office Director

Before being appointed as Director of the Agency for Support for BEREC (BEREC Office), Mr László Ignéczi was a diplomat at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the European Union (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Brussels for more than five years.

He was responsible for information society issues, audio-visual matters, space policy and the postal services. He represented Hungary in the respective European Council (Council) Working Groups; liaising with European Commission (EC) services and European Parliament (EP) groups. In particular, he chaired, among others, the Telecommunication Working Group during the Hungarian Presidency of the EU in 2011.

Previously, he served in the Hungarian national administration. At the Ministry of Economy and Transport, he managed the European Union (EU) electronic communication, information society and postal services affairs as Deputy Head of Department. At the Ministry for Information and Communications, as Director General for Communications Regulation, he was responsible for the national legislation and for contributing to the EU proceedings.

At the beginning of his career, he worked in the private sector, in the field of electronic communications, for a decade. In his various managerial positions, he has been deeply involved in launching and running a local telecom operator; preparing the market entry of a nation-wide alternative telecom service provider; and market consolidation through acquisitions and mergers.

Appointment

The Management Board (MB) of the BEREC Office appoints the Director through an open and transparent selection procedure, on the basis of merit, management, administrative and budgetary skills and the skills and experience relevant to electronic communications networks and services. For this, the MB must adopt a vacancy notice setting out the eligibility and selection criteria, as well as the overall procedure for the appointment of the Director.

For the selection process, the MB must set up a selection panel consisting of five members, four being EU National Regulatory Authority senior representatives and one representative from the EC. A second representative from the EC, an expert in human resources, must participate in the work to ensure the respect for due process. Overall, the selection panel acts upon unanimity and its purpose is to propose a short list of suitable candidates for the post of Director to the MB.

Following interviews of the short listed candidates with the MB, the members of the MB must vote for one candidate. A candidate is selected after receiving a two-thirds majority. Moreover, and before the appointment of the selected candidate, this candidate may be subject to a non-binding opinion of the EP. Thus, the candidate must be invited to make a statement before the competent committee of the EP and answer questions forwarded by their members.

The Director’s term of office is five years. It can be extended once, for no more than five years.

Responsibilities

The Director is responsible for heading the BEREC Office and is accountable to the BEREC Office MB. The Director’s main tasks are the following:

  • being in charge of the administrative management of the BEREC Office and accountable to the MB;
  • assisting the Chair of the Board of Regulators (BoR) and the Chairperson of the MB in preparing the meetings of their respective bodies; 
  • without prejudice to the powers of the BoR, the MB and the EC, being independent in the performance of their duties, and not seeking or taking instructions from any government, institution, person or body;
  • reporting to the EP and the Council on the performance of their duties when requested to do so; 
  • being the legal representative of the BEREC Office;
  • being responsible for the implementation of the BEREC Office’s tasks and following the guidance provided by the BoR and MB;
  • under the supervision of the MB, taking the necessary measures, in particular with regard to adopting internal administrative instructions and publishing notices, in order to ensure the functioning of the BEREC Office in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1971 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the Agency for Support for BEREC (BEREC Office) – the ‘BEREC Regulation’;
  • subject to the prior consent of the EC, the MB and the Member States concerned, deciding whether it is necessary for the purpose of carrying out the BEREC Office’s tasks in an efficient and effective manner to locate one or more members of staff in one or more Member State(s). The decision must specify the scope of the activities to be carried out in a manner that avoids unnecessary costs and duplication of administrative functions of the BEREC Office. Before such a decision is taken, its impact in terms of staff allocation and budget must be set out in the multiannual programming document referred to in Article 23(4).