On Wednesday, April 11, 2007, an official mission of the Romanian authorities, representing the communications and information technology field, attended a working meeting with the officials of the Directorate General for Information Society and Media. The meeting was organised by the Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union and took place in Brussels. The Romanian delegation comprised representatives of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology (ANRCTI), of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCTI) and of the Inspectorate General for Communications and Information Technology (IGCTI).
“The discussions focused on the stage of the implementation of the European legislation in Romania and the specific problems of the Romanian IT&C sector. Our main purpose was to identify, through these discussions, the most advantageous policies and strategies for Romania, considering its current status as a Member State of the European Union. Under these conditions, ANRCTI started to collaborate with the European Union and the national regulatory authorities of the Member States, by the use of a mechanism for notifying the taken regulatory measures at a European level. Moreover, a legal framework on the information exchange between the parties was established. When exerting its attributions, the Romanian authority has the obligation to take into account the recommendations of the European Union,”, Dan Georgescu, the President of ANRCTI, declared.
“Considering Romania’s capacity as new member of the European Union, this meeting was extremely necessary in order to offer the European officials an overview of the Romanian IT&C market, thus creating the context for future debates. We also discussed about the relevant problems in the field – the universal service and the digital gap – as well as about the projects which are meant to solve these problems: the Telecentres and the Knowledge Based Economy project. Another important subject was the regulatory framework in communications, taking into account the European Commission’s role as the main body of legislative initiative at European level as well as the fact that new regulations in the communications field are expected to be enforced during 2007”, Balint Porcsalmi, MCTI State Secretary, declared on this occasion.
The Romanian delegation met Fabio Colasanti, Director General of the Directorate General for Information Society and Media, the heads of units within the Directorate General, as well as Krisztian Kecsmar, the DG INFSO representative responsible for monitoring the implementation of the acquis in the Romanian electronic communications sector.
The Romanian mission presented the evolution of the IT&C sector from the institutional viewpoint, the degree of transposing and implementing the European legislation which regulates the IT&C sector, the current Romanian market landscape, and discussed about the annual report for Romania, elaborated within the i2010 initiative – an initiative of the European Commission which promotes an open, competitive digital economy and underlines the role IT&C has as a promoter of social inclusion and of the increase in life quality.