ANRC and the Competition Council Sign Cooperation Protocol

Today, July 14, 2004, the President of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Ion Smeeianu, and the President of the Competition Council, Mihai Berinde, signed the cooperation protocol between the two organizations, during an official ceremony.

The document establishes the conditions under which the two institutions will coordinate their efforts to promote competition in the sectors of electronic communications and postal services in their common endeavour to protect end-users’ interests. By signing this cooperation agreement, both institutions committed to building a common action plan, aimed at fostering competition on the market of electronic communications and postal services, plan based on regular bilateral analyses, on problems of common interest, related to the electronic communications and postal services sectors.

The instruments supporting the implementation and viability of this protocol will include joint teams of experts, common market research activities – studies or analyses are necessary for both institutions to better understand the market and to disseminate the legislation – as well as measures and actions related to the competitive environment and the functioning of the electronic communications and postal services sector.

Also, in order to maintain a permanent contact with the changes that occur on the market the two organizations will engage in mutual exchange of information, sharing the data collected from the industry representatives. The regular meetings with the industry of both signatories were deemed to represent a valuable method for identifying the problems faced by the companies as regards the application of the regulations in this field.

„The documents we signed today represent the official confirmation of a cooperation the principles of which have been clearly defined in the last two years and the advantages of which have started to show. Currently, we are dealing with a growing communications market, attractive for businesspeople and with a significant volume in the national economy. For the institutions present here, ANRC and the Competition Council, it has become obvious that there is only one way to move on: specialization and cooperation, combined efforts, in order for our activity to reach the maximum possible efficiency, by applying the general legislation in the field of competition and the special legislation in the field of communications in a coordinated manner”, declared Ion Smeeianu, ANRC President, during this event.