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1. Public sector bodies owning or controlling physical infrastructure and network operators shall have the right to negotiate agreements on the coordination of civil works, including on the apportioning of costs, with operators with a view to deploying elements of VHCNs or associated facilities.

2. When performing, or planning to perform, directly or indirectly, civil works which are fully or partially financed by public means, public sector bodies owning or controlling physical infrastructure and network operators shall meet any reasonable written request to coordinate those civil works under transparent and non-discriminatory terms made by operators with a view to deploying elements of VHCNs or associated facilities. Member States may specify detailed requirements relating to the administrative aspects of the request. Requests to coordinate civil works shall be met, provided that all of the following conditions are met:

(a) the coordination of civil works will not entail any unrecoverable additional costs, including those caused by additional delays, for the network operator or public sector body owning or controlling physical infrastructure that initially envisaged the civil works in question, without prejudice to the possibility of the parties concerned agreeing on apportioning the costs;

(b) the network operator or public sector body owning or controlling physical infrastructure initially envisaging the civil works remains in control over the coordination of the works;

(c) the request is submitted as soon as possible and, when a permit is necessary for the civil works, at least one month before the submission of the final project to the permit-granting authorities.

3. Member States may provide that requests to coordinate civil works made by an undertaking that provides, or is authorised to provide, public electronic communications networks to an undertaking owned or controlled by public sector bodies and providing, or authorised to provide, public electronic communications networks, may be deemed to be unreasonable in the event that the civil works contribute to the deployment of VHCNs, provided that those VHCNs are located in rural or remote areas, are owned or controlled by public sector bodies, and are operated on a wholesale-only basis.

4. A request to coordinate civil works made by an undertaking that provides, or that is authorised to provide, public electronic communications networks to an undertaking that provides or is authorised to provide public electronic communications networks may be deemed to be unreasonable where both of the following conditions are met:

(a) the request concerns an area which has been subject to either of the following:

(i) a forecast of the reach of broadband networks, including VHCNs pursuant to Article 22(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972;

(ii) an invitation to declare the intention to deploy VHCNs pursuant to Article 22(3) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972;

(iii) a public consultation in applying Union State aid rules;

(b) the requesting undertaking failed to express its intention to deploy VHCNs in the area referred to in point (a) in any of the most recent procedures among those listed in that point covering the period during which the request for coordination is made.

If a request to coordinate is considered unreasonable on the basis of the first subparagraph, the undertaking providing, or authorised to provide, public electronic communications networks that refused the coordination of civil works shall deploy physical infrastructure with sufficient capacity to accommodate possible future reasonable needs for third-party access.

5. Member States may identify, based on duly justified and proportionate reasons, the types of civil works considered to be limited in scope, such as in terms of value, size or duration, or related to national critical infrastructure that could be exempt from the obligation to coordinate civil works pursuant to paragraph 2. The justification, criteria and conditions for applying exceptions to such types of civil works shall be published via a single information point. Member States may decide that public sector bodies owning or controlling physical infrastructure and network operators shall not apply paragraphs 2 and 4 to types of civil works that relate to national critical infrastructure or for reasons of national security identified by Member States pursuant to first subparagraph of this paragraph.

Public sector bodies owning or controlling physical infrastructure and network operators may decide not to apply paragraphs 2 and 4 to types of works that are identified by Member States as limited in scope pursuant to the first subparagraph of this paragraph.

6. By 12 November 2025, after consulting stakeholders, the national dispute settlement bodies and other competent Union bodies or agencies in the relevant sectors, as appropriate, and after taking into account well-established principles and the specific situations of each Member State, BEREC shall, in close cooperation with the Commission, provide guidelines on the application of this Article, in particular concerning:

(a) apportioning the costs associated with the coordination of civil works as referred to in paragraph 1;

(b) the criteria that the dispute settlement bodies should follow when settling disputes falling within the scope of this Article; and (c) the criteria for ensuring sufficient capacity to accommodate foreseeable future reasonable needs if coordination of civil works is refused pursuant to paragraph 4.