Eleven European Union countries are in hot water with the Europea...
Eleven European Union countries are in hot water with the European Commission (EC) for not adequately adopting various e-communications rules into national law. Letters of formal notice (the first stage in the process of dealing with member states that…
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fail to comply with directives) went to the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Finland, the EC said Thurs. “Reasoned opinions"-- the 2nd phase of infringement proceedings -- went to Latvia and Poland. Breaches cited in the letters included: (1) Failure to make number portability available to mobile service subscribers. (2) Lack of a comprehensive printed directory or directory enquiry service covering fixed and mobile subscribers. (3) Failure to make the European emergency number 112 effectively available. Finland was cited for not having independence of regulation because its ministry has the power to define markets for regulation but also controls govt. ownership of several operators. Moreover, the EC said, Finnish law automatically requires the dominant telco to provide universal service, excluding other operators from consideration. Earlier this year, the EC launched infringement proceedings against 10 member states, charging their laws either are incompatible with EC law or aren’t being applied. The countries had 2 months to respond; the EC said it’s reviewing their comments and hasn’t decided whether to proceed. Allegations against Greece and France of incomplete transposition of the e-communications framework into national law are pending before the European Court of Justice. Member states were supposed to enact the e- communications regulatory package into law in 2002. Their failure to do so is said to be hampering competition in the telecom sector, slowing rollout of high-speed Internet connections and affordable mobile communications.