Transposition in the 25 Member States
Five member-States (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece and Luxembourg) have still not transposed the primary legislation of the new regulatory framework and a further eight member-States (Spain, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia) have not yet transposed the secondary legislation.
Procedures foreseen in Article 7
Up to 1 October 2004, 101 notifications had been received by the Commission, from nine member-States, sent mainly by Portugal, Austria, Finland and the United Kingdom, with the national regulatory authorities? (NRA) analyses not showing any variations in relation to the markets defined in the Recommendation. The observations of the Commission were also taken into account when the final decision was taken. The Commission?s power of veto was only used on three occasions.
Based on the notifications made we can conclude that regulation has now focussed on solving market deficiencies. The approach taken in the designation of SMP (significant market power) operators has followed the principles of the corresponding guidelines and, in terms of corrective measures (remedies), obligations are being imposed on companies designated as having SMP resulting from the competition problems identified in the relevant markets.
Implementation of the new regulatory framework in EU-25
The key areas in which the member-States? regulatory control must be improved are as follows: independence, impartiality and speed of the NRAs? procedures, service authorisation charges, individual rights to the use of radio frequencies, rights of passage and sharing of installations and resources, supply of universal service, transport obligations (?must-carry?), non-requested commercial communications, traffic data, implementation of transitory provision in EU-15 and implementation of the start-up conditions in the new member-States.
