Brussels, 14/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 May 2009, the European Commission opened three infringement proceedings. One is against Bulgaria, about the portability of landline numbers, one against Slovakia over the independence of the national regulatory authority and one against Italy on caller identification. All three countries have been sent a warning letter, the first of the three stages in the infringement proceedings. The governments now have two months to reply to the Commission's concerns.
In Bulgaria, the portability of landline numbers is not yet working (under Article 20 of the EU universal service directive, customers can take their telephone number with them when they move or change telephone company). When it joined the EU in 2007, Bulgaria was authorised to postpone the introduction of number portability until 1 January 2009, but has not yet done so. The Bulgarian telecoms watchdog informed the Commission at the end of January that portability was still being introduced but the Commission is not satisfied with this response. In Slovakia, the European Commission is concerned about the independence of the national telecoms watchdog TÚSR, which it feels does not have sufficient protection. The Slovakian parliament sacked the chair of TUSR on 4 December 2008 using a procedure the Commission feels runs counter to EU legislation (under EU rules, Slovakian legislation must ensure the independence of the regulatory authority from any interference that could damage the impartiality of the decisions). In Italy, information about the location of incoming callers is still not provided to the emergency services for calls to the 112 emergency number from mobile phones, despite this being required under Article 26 of the universal service directive, and the EU Court of Justice issued a ruling against Italy in this connection on 15 January 2009. The Commission has decided to send Italy a warning letter, requiring it to comply with the Court of Justice's ruling. Italy may be fined if the case returns to the European Court of Justice again. (I.L./transl.fl)