Brussels, 05/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - The telecoms regulators in Lithuania - R yðiø reguliavimo tarnyba (RRT) - and Latvia - Sabiedrisko pakalpojumu regulesanas komisija (SPRK) - are in the European Commission's sights. On Friday 5 February, the Commission revealed the observations made to the two regulators under the procedure provided for by Article 7 of the framework directive on EU telecommunications rules.
With regard to Lithuania, the Commission has concerns over RRT's requiring terrestrial broadcasters to use specific suppliers to transmit their programmes, which, it believes constitutes a barrier to competition and prevents new terrestrial transmission service providers from entering the market. The Commission says that, in principal, regulators no longer need to intervene in broadcasting markets. In its letter, the Commission said it reserved the right to examine whether the exclusive right granted by the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission in broadcasters' licences to transmission service providers is in line with EU law.
In Latvia, the Commission has asked SPRK to change the way it calculates fixed and mobile termination rates so that these fees can be lowered. In May 2009, the Commission presented recommendations on a way of calculating termination rates based on costs, but allowed a transition period during which telecoms regulators can calculate termination rates in other ways, subject to certain conditions. In its letters, the Commission reminded SPRK that termination rates should be set at the level of costs of an efficient operator. When regulators temporarily use benchmarks for establishing termination rates (that is to say, compared with rates charged in the other countries of the EU and their expected evolution), such methods should reflect cost-based termination rates. (A.B./transl.rt)