Brussels, 30/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - For the first time, the European Commission has been able to close an infringement procedure against Bulgaria, following steps taken to ensure the independence of the national authorities responsible for regulation of telecoms. The Commission also welcomes a decision by the German Federal Administrative Court confirming the powers of the German telecoms regulator (the Bundesnetzagentur) in the mobile termination market. “Independent and well equipped national regulatory authorities are central to the effective carrying-out of EU Telecoms rules,” said Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms Commissioner. “I am especially satisfied that we have been able to close the case against Bulgaria following substantial changes regarding the Bulgarian regulatory authorities… I also welcome that the legal situation in Germany has been clarified.”
The Bulgarian case was opened in November 2007 due to an apparent conflict of interest: the chairman of a state body with regulatory powers (the State Agency for Information Technology and Communications) was at the same time a member of the incumbent operator's board. This threatened to undermine the independence of regulatory decisions. Moreover, the board of the Bulgarian regulator, the Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) was not fully staffed, causing regulatory decisions to be significantly delayed or postponed. The case has now been closed following the appointment by the Bulgarian government of a new Chairman to the CRC, as well as the resignation of the Chairman of the state body from the incumbent's board in December 2007.
In Germany, the Commission has also been able to provisionally suspend an infringement procedure started in October 2004 because legal uncertainty existed regarding the powers of the German telecoms regulator (the Bundesnetzagentur) to impose appropriate regulation on call termination markets (in particular, the rates operators charge each other for connecting calls between their networks). On 18 June 2008, the German Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) published a decision that approved the German regulator's decision to regulate termination rates of all operators. The Commission is currently analysing the reasoning of the Court's decision in order to decide whether all legal uncertainty has now been removed. A final decision on whether the case should be closed definitively will be taken later this year. (I.L./transl. fl)