BEREC Chairmanship

BEREC Chair 2023

Konstantinos Masselos is the new BEREC Chair 2023. He was appointed as the President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) in February 2018. In 2006, he joined the University of Peloponnese as a Professor in Computing Systems Design in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications. He served as Rector of the abovementioned university from 2012 to 2017. Between 2005 and 2008, he was Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. Also, during the period 2010-2016 he was an Honorary Lecturer in the same Department. From 2001 to 2004, he worked in the Greek electronic communications industry. Prof. Masselos has been involved in several research and development projects and has a long consulting experience in industry and public organisations. Since 2005, he has regularly been involved as an expert in various European Commission units. He was a member of the Scientific Committee of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) from 2015 to 2017. He has authored over 120 papers in international journals and conferences.

BEREC Vice-Chairs 2023

The BEREC Vice-Chairs for 2023 are the following:

• Ms Annemarie Sipkes (ACM, the Netherlands) as outgoing Chair 2022;
• Mr Tonko Obuljen (HAKOM, Croatia) as incoming Chair 2024;
• Mr Wilhelm Eschweiler (BNetzA, Germany);
• Mr Robert Mourik (ComReg, Ireland).

The BEREC Chair and Vice-Chairs, together with the representative of Participants without voting rights, Mr Branko Kovijanić (EKIP, Montenegro), compose the Mini-Board. The main duty of the Mini-Board is to assist the Chair in the performance of their duties. 

Appointment process

Every year, the BEREC Board of Regulators (BoR) elects among its members the Chair for the year subsequent to the following year. To be nominated and elected as Chair, the nominee needs to be supported by at least four members, excluding the candidate itself, and serve at least one year as Vice-Chair. Moreover, at least two-thirds of the members need to vote in favour of one of the Chair’s candidates to reach a majority. Usually, the election takes place during the penultimate BEREC ordinary meeting, when the regular four ordinary meetings are scheduled. Otherwise, the election takes place in the latter half of the year. Overall, the duration of the Chairmanship is one year, renewable once.

Similarly, every year, the BoR elects at least two Vice-Chairs from among its members for the following year. Moreover, the incoming Chair for the year subsequent to the following year and the BEREC Chair of the current year serve as Vice-Chairs. 

Duties and responsibilities

As laid down in 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’ – and upon mandate of the BoR, the BEREC Chair is responsible for all external relations on behalf of BEREC, representing its interests. In this regard, the BEREC Chair has the responsibility to inform all members of the external activities and to report on their results and provide all relevant materials. Moreover, and when invited, the BEREC Chair is responsible to report on the performance of BEREC’s tasks to the European Parliament and the European Commission. The BEREC Chair also serves as the Chair of the Mini-Board, and in this regard convenes the meetings and informs the BoR of the activities of the Mini-Board. 

The BEREC Vice-Chairs have two distinct duties. On the one hand, the incoming Chair or, if the former is not available, the Vice-Chairs, take over the role as Chair if the latter is not in the position to perform their duties. On the other hand, each of the Vice-Chairs provides support and follows the work of a specific cluster of BEREC Working Groups (WGs). The constellation of each cluster of WGs to be assigned to a Vice-Chair is decided by the BEREC Chair. Moreover, in the year preceding the chairmanship, the incoming BEREC Chair has the duty to prepare the Annual Work Programme.

Previous BEREC Chairs