Luxembourg, 12/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has referred Luxembourg to the Court of Justice of the Communities for infringing the "right of way" in the field of telecommunications.
The obligation to guarantee a non-discriminatory right of way, provided for by the "full competition" directive (96/19/ED), has been formally transposed into Luxembourg law, but in practice, rival telecommunications operators to the public firm EPT (traditional operator) do not manage to secure right of way in the public sector. This situation, which pushed the company Coditel to lodge a complaint in July 1999, means that operators cannot deploy their networks in negihbouring countries and remain obliged to rent the lines of the traditional operator, or even defer starting their activities even though they hold licences. The EPT monopoly on the provision of telecommunications infrastructures is therefore de facto retained, says the Commission which has taken the case to the Court of Justice as Luxembourg has not responded to its reasoned opinion of 3 August of last year.