Brussels, 24/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has opened infringement proceedings against Germany and Poland. On the other hand, it has closed proceedings against Poland and Slovakia in another affair.
The Commission has initiated proceedings against Germany and Poland for failure to use the EU consultation mechanism on price control. EU legislation makes it an obligation for national regulatory authorities to inform the Commission of any draft measure that has an impact on trade between member states, and on the reasons behind the measure. The case in hand relates to the regulation of mobile termination rates (fees operators charge each other to connect a call between their networks and included in each user's phone bill). Germany failed to consult the Commission and the other member states with the risk that legislation adopted might be considerably different from one member state to the next, creating competition distortion on the telecoms market. This is the second injunction from the Commission against Germany for this. The Commission has therefore sent Germany a reasoned opinion. In a similar dossier, the Commission sent Poland a request for information concerning its national telecoms regulatory authority that it suspects of having circumvented consultation mechanisms and of having fixed the level of wholesale broadband access tariffs without prior consultation of stakeholders. It has sent a letter of formal notice to Poland. On the other hand, the Commission has closed another case concerning Poland which now complies with the rules on subscription rates. It has also closed proceedings against Slovakia which has brought in a new regulation that now ensures the independence of the telecom regulatory authority. (I.L./transl.jl)