International Law

Telecoms Rules: Commission refers Poland and Belgium to the European Court of Justice

By jcdw

In a new round of infringement proceedings for Telecoms Rules, the European Commission has decided to refer two cases to the European Court of Justice, and opened two new infringement proceedings. Three reasoned opinions, the second stage of an infringement proceeding, have also been sent and eight infringement cases are now closed. The most important issue of this round of telecoms infringement proceedings is the independence of national telecoms regulators.

“Independent regulators are the backbone of an efficient regulatory system and of fair regulation in the interests of competition and consumers. This is why the Commission cannot tolerate violations of the independence of national telecoms regulators required by EU law,” said Viviane Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner. “I therefore regret that I have to refer Poland today to the European Court of Justice for the continued lack of independence of the Polish telecoms regulator. Also the Luxembourg’s regulator will need to ensure that there is a clear division of responsibilities between regulatory and ownership functions ? otherwise, we will also need to take Luxembourg to the European Court of Justice very soon. On the positive side, I note that Slovakia meanwhile has reacted to the Commission’s concerns and has amended its national legislation to ensure that the Slovak regulator is independent to perform its tasks efficiently. This is a change that will improve competition in Slovakia and ensure that telecoms customers in Slovakia will get a better deal in the future.”

EN, FR, DE, PL

Full post as published by European Law Network on February 03, 2008 (boomark / email).