Brussels, 30/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is concerned about problems with the functioning of the Bulgarian telecommunications regulatory authority. It has therefore decided to open infringement proceedings against Bulgaria, having noted serious infringements of European minimum rules concerning the independence of the national regulatory authorities (NRA).
On Wednesday, the Commission announced that it had sent a letter of formal notice to Bulgaria, giving the reason of the lack of resources and problems observed in the decision-making process of the Bulgarian NRA, resulting from the prolonged absence of a chairman to lead it. The market analyses, one of the main duties of the NRAs, have still not been carried out in Bulgaria. Regulatory decisions, therefore, have been delayed or postponed consistently, according to the Commission. Furthermore, the board of directors of the historical telecommunications operators includes among its members the president of another authority which has certain competencies in regulatory matters, the State Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, which creates a conflict of interests and potentially compromising the independence of the NRA, the Commission explains. These infringement proceedings are the second ones recently opened against Bulgaria in the telecommunications sector (lack of availability of the European emergency telephone number 112). Infringement proceedings over the lack of independence of the NRA are also underway against Poland and Slovakia. (I.L.)