Romania, sanctioned again for the lack of independence in telecoms market regulations

The European Commission opened on Thursday another infringement procedure on community law against Romania for not respecting the communitarian norms that require the separation between the regulation authorities in the telecommunications sector and the services suppliers, a European Executive report. Brussels warns that the Communications minister is regulating Romania, but simultaneously he holds shares with Romtelecom and Radiocom.

„The Commission today reiterated its call on Romania to make sure its telecoms regulators had no business interest in the telecoms market. The Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information Society has specific tasks, which EU telecoms rules consider to be of a regulatory nature. These regulatory tasks include the allocation and assignment of radio frequencies, in particular adopting the national frequency plan and preparing government decisions relating to radio spectrum management.

At the same time, the Romanian Ministry of Communications and Information Society also exercises ownership and control activities in two companies providing telecoms networks and/or services (Romtelecom S.A. and S.N.R. S.A. – ‘Radiocom’). Under EU telecoms rules, Member States that retain ownership or control companies providing these services must ensure effective structural separation of the regulatory function from activities associated with ownership or control.”

This is the second such warning. The first infringement procedure on the community law, still unfolding, took place in January 2009, due to the fact that the regulation’s authority president was dismissed before the deadline.