The European Commission yesterday sent yet another notification to a Member State under the competition policy in telecommunications, now adding the 500 notifications to the 25 States. With this notification the European executive now admits to having a clearer view of the state of competition in telecommunications in the European Union, just in time for the review of the regulatory framework that is being prepared.
According to the Commission’s information, today almost all Member States have already reviewed the identified markets, and have notified the EC of the data collected. «The first round market reviews was an important step in boosting competition and consumer benefits in the electronic communications markets «, stresses Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, in a statement.
The analysis carried out by the regulators of the various Member States indicates that in 22 of the 25 EU countries incumbent operators still dominate the retail market, having imposed the necessary measures.
The Commissioner believes that there is a common understanding in the Member States regarding the vision of internal market regulation, which is bringing collaboration between the Commission and national regulators closer.
The last notification delivered by the commission was addressed to the Greek regulator, EETT, and was related to the fixed network access market for residential and non-residential customers. The Greek regulator determined the dominance of this market by the incumbent operator, OTE, and decided to impose a series of obligations, including the resale of the lines, having communicated this information to the European Commission, which did not object.
Some Member States have already started the second round of market assessments, which should assess whether the remedies imposed on the results obtained in the meantime are having an effect.
It is recalled that the Commission has proposed to develop a more efficient set of measures to ensure competition in the electronic communications markets, which will be integrated into the 2006 regulatory package.
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