CYPRUS, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Poland received a first-round warning for not sending EU regulators their reviews of the market on Wednesday.
Responding to the warning, the office of the telecoms regulator yesterday said that Cyprus “hasn’t had enough time to satisfy the technicalities asked for by the EU”, resulting in the island being charged for failing to open up its telecoms market to competition.
Market reviews are designed to ensure that rules are updated to keep pace with changing markets and are only applied where there is a lack of competition. Obligations should only be imposed on dominant operators.
The EU says this analysis is crucial to make sure the market is open to competition and regulations are able to cope with change. Governments have two months to respond.
“Implementing the joint EU rules is essential to ensure that competition on Europe’s electronic communications market can deliver high-quality goods and services that are essential to growth and jobs”, said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.
“We also need the 25 national regulators’ market reviews to enable us to make an informed assessment of the framework when we come to review it in 2006. This is why I am determined to undertake the necessary steps to make sure that Member States comply with their obligations as soon as possible.”
Director of the office of the commissioner for electronic communications, Neophytos Papadopoulos, said that notification will take place by December.
“It’s not as if we haven’t been doing anything,” he said. “Since last April, before accession, Cyprus has had to transpose and implement a specific regulatory framework and we just haven’t had time to satisfy the technicalities, which are the formal notifications of the results of our market analyses.
“What we will be sending to the EU by December are the results of four market analyses, which are local loop unbundling, broadband services, access and origination of mobile telephony and mobile termination. The EU have known that we will be sending them this information since April.
“This afternoon, the four market analysis results will be made available in the form of public consultations, so that they can be commented on by stakeholders.”
The European Commission warned Cyprus and Slovenia for not guaranteeing the independence of the national regulator. It also told Estonia it wasn’t sticking closely to EU legal rules. Malta received a second-round warning for not obeying an EU order to allow customers to keep their phone number when they change operators.
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