Brussels, 24/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the European Commission decided to send Spain a further Reasoned Opinion (in the framework of the infringement procedure initiated in 1998) on tariff rebalancing in telecommunications. It considers that the tariffs of Spain's traditional operator, Telefonica, for the monthly rental of telephones lines to its end users are still not in line with underlying costs, and will remain so most probably until the beginning of 2003. To avoid being referred to the Court of Justice, Spain has two months to send in its remarks to the Commission and comply with Community legislation.
A first Reasoned Opinion was sent on 21 December last. The Commission regards it as necessary to pursue the procedure for two main reasons: (1) in the context of uncoupling the local loop, compulsory since 2001, "it is not logical that Telefonica competitors which want to move onto the Spanish market should be billed tariffs by the traditional operator for uncoupled lines at a higher price than the retail line rental charged to its end customers", a Commission spokesperson explains, adding that this situation prevents the installation of healthy and fair competition on a liberalised market (to the detriment of the consumer). (2) The Spanish Government has not convinced the Commission about the review of the price-cap mechanism which regulates Telefonica's tariffs (mechanism in force since August 2000). The rebalancing involves, notably, an increase in the subscription compensated by a drop in price for long-distance communications.