On Monday, the 27th of January 2003, a delegation of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications headed by Mr. Ion Smeeianu, the President, was present in Athens for a series of working sessions with the representatives of the regulatory authority for communications and postal services from Greece – The National Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT).
During the working sessions included presentations of the evolutions of common interest and the chief aspects of the communications market regulation and of the development of the two countries and an exchange of experience was on the harmonized implementation of the European legislation in the region.
The Greek regulatory authority has a rich experience in the field of the liberalised communications market, as wall as in the field of the numbering plan, that of the general authorisation elaboration, in the domain of the universal service provison, of the market surveilance and of the identification of the significant market power operators.
ANRC presented the leaders of the Greek authority its functioning and organizational methods, its priorities and approaches for year 2003, as well as the new Romanian new regulatory framework in the field of the electronic communications and postal services which transposes the new acquis, the legislative package that the European Union state members, Greece being included here, are bound to implement no later than July this year. The meeting agenda also included: the presentation of the EETT’s responsabilities, the features of a liberalised communications market – the EETT’s experience (the complete liberalization of the greek market took place on the 1st of January 2001), the quality of the services, the consumer protection, the universal service, access and interconnection, numbering.
The ANRC President had meetings with the EETT President, Emmanouel Giakoumakis, with the EET Vicepresident on telecommunications issues, Dimitrios Dimitropoulos, as well as with the EETT Vicepresident on postal issues, Aristides Mantas.
A EU member, Greece, is also an affiliate to the European Regulaory Group (ERG) – which represents the regulatory authorities of the member states in the relation with the European Commission having as objective to contribute to the development of the internal market – as well as of the Independent Regulatory Group (IRG) – independent association which has the mission to ensure the legislative harmonization in the communications sector between the European Community member states, but at the same time is concerned with the communications development of the candidate states, granting assistance to the respective regulatory authorities.
“For the purpose of the communications development inside the Balkan region and the harmonious evolution of the legislative and regulatory framework in the region, the EETT President expressed his intention to support the Romanian participation in the ERG and IRG reunions, as an observer. We gladly welcomed this initiative of the Greek authority, realizing the importance of experience exchange with the european countries. However, there are areas where Romania is a pioneer in the exercitation of the communications regulation. From this point of view, our experience is valuable even for the European Union member states. There are also various domains where the European experience can be useful, especially when it regards the competition stimulation and the increase of the fixed telephony penetration rate,” declared Ion Smeeianu.