EC To Continue Infringement Unless Romanian Senate Adopts Act Setting Up Telecom Regulator

The European Commission warned the Romanian Government it will move to the second stage of the infringement procedure over Romania's telecom regulator unless the Senate urgently adopts the decree setting up the regulator ANCOM.

The government set up the telecom regulator ANCOM in March this year after the European Commission started infringement procedures. In the new structure, the telecom regulator will function under parliamentary control and will have a management appointed by the head of state, at the proposal of the government.

The act setting up the regulator was sent to the Parliament for debate and approval and was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies but didn't get enough votes to be adopted in Senate as well.

Late January 2009, the Commission decided to launch an infringement procedure against Romania for breaching EU rules regarding the independence of its telecom regulator.
The Commission said in its release at the time that the Romanian government's decision in 2008 first to remove the president of the national telecoms regulator and then, after a court ruling suspending this decision, to restructure and rename this authority represents a serious violation of the regulator's independence.
Following repeated warnings, the Commission opened an infringement procedure against Romania by sending a letter of formal notice under Article 226 of the EC Treaty to the Romanian government.

A government document obtained by MEDIAFAX shows the European Commission's director general for information society, Fabio Colasanti, contacted Romanian authorities and warned that delays in adopting the law setting up the telecom regulator pushes the Commission into the second stage of infringement.
The second stage of the infringement procedure consists of a letter of formal notice and is the last stage before the country is referred to the European Court of Justice.

mediafax.ro