Brussels, 18/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has opened new infringement procedures in the telecommunications sector. The first series involves accessibility to the 112 emergency number; the second, the independence and efficiency of national regulation authorities; and the third, universal service obligations and regulation of rights access to the broadband retail market.
112 Emergency number. The Commission has sent Italy a letter of formal notice, the first stage in the infringement procedure, regarding the efficiency of response to 112 calls. It also decided to take Bulgaria and Romania to the Court of Justice for inaccessibility to the 112 number and for lack of caller location for 112 calls. These two countries have failed to provide a satisfactory response to the reasoned opinion, the second stage of the infringement procedure.
Independence and efficiency of national regulatory authorities. The Commission has opened three new procedures (letters of formal notice) to Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. Ministries responsible for telecoms perform certain functions assigned to national regulators in the areas of numbering, frequency management and universal service while at the same time exercising, on behalf of the state, activities associated with ownership and control (“operational activities”) in certain state-owned telecoms companies. This lack of structural separation could undermine the impartiality of their regulatory decisions. The Commission is also sending a letter of formal notice to Sweden since the national telecommunications legislation, as interpreted by Swedish courts, limits the powers of the Swedish national regulator (an agency separate from the Ministry) in the settlement of certain disputes over interconnection agreements between telecoms operators.
Universal service obligations, broadband retail market access rights. The Commission has sent Spain a reasoned opinion (the second stage of an infringement proceeding) on its mechanism for the designation and financing of providers of universal service. The Commission also decided to refer Poland and Cyprus to the European Court of Justice. The Polish case relates to the decision to regulate the retail price of broadband without undertaking a market review and the Cypriot case involves a failure to properly apply the procedure for granting rights to install facilities for the mobile sector. At the same time, the Commission could close two pending cases. Latvian legislation now includes the obligation to notify the Commission and national regulators in other EU member states of draft measures relating to telecoms operators - a notification duty which is crucial and which did not previously exist. Finland is now in compliance with provisions on the number of channels. (I.L./transl.rh)