Tuesday, October 17, 2006, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC) assembled, during the international conference entitled ”European Communications in Romania”, representatives of the IT&C business community in Romania, high officials of the European Commission and specialists with relevant experience in Europe.
“The adoption of the community acquis on the Romanian communications market is a success story, for which the National Regulatory Authority for Communications should be praised”, Mr. Olivier Pascal, Principal Administrator – Desk Officer for Romania, International Relations, within DG Information Society and Media of the European Commission, declared during the first session of the conference hosted by ANRC.
The first session of the conference, entitled “Romanian Electronic Communications – part of Europe” was also attended by Mr. Peter Scott, Head of Unit, Policy Development, within DG Information Society and Media of the European Commission and by Mr. Daniel Pataki, President of the National Communications Authority of Hungary.
In his presentation, Mr. Olivier Pascal highlighted the fact that the ANRC monitoring has been put on a firm regulatory basis and has proved to be effective with consultation and transparency mechanism, Romania being ahead of most EU MS on adoption of legislation and on market analysis.
As well, regulatory measures such as cost orientation of interconnection rates, fixed retail tariff regulation, which were aimed at promoting competition, have been fully implemented. Mobile termination rates “are low, in comparison with EU Member States”, Mr. Olivier Pascal added.
The stakeholders in the Romanian IT&C field were represented by the State Secretary for Communications of MCTI, Mr. Florin Bejan, the IGCTI President, Mr. Catalin Marinescu, and the President of the Commission for Information Technology and Communications of the Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Varujan Pambuccian.
The second session of the conference, dedicated to infrastructure-based competition, was a forum for discussion and experience exchange between the Romanian regulator, the market players, regulatory authorities of Austria, Netherlands, Sweden and representatives of the Belgian consultancy company Cullen International.
The session dedicated to the regulatory strategy and the development trends of the Romanian communications market benefited from the input of the German consultancy company, WIK-Consult and of the major market players in Romania.
The international conference “European Communications in Romania”, organised by ANRC, was a good opportunity for making a “radiography” of the communications market at the time of accession, for highlighting the business risks and opportunities on the common European market, as well as for revealing the European Commission’s expectations from Romania and our country’s prospects in the European technological landscape.