Press Release: Telecoms: Commission requests information from Slovenia and Latvia over independence of telecoms regulators

The European Commission decided on 18 March 2010 to send a formal request for information to Slovenia over the independence of its national telecoms regulator Agencije za pošto in elektronske komunikacije (APEK). The Slovenian Government dismissed the director of APEK on 26 November 2009. The Commission is concerned that the rules by which this was done may not conform with EU rules that guarantee the independence of telecoms regulators. The request for information takes the form of a "letter of formal notice" under EU infringement procedures (Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). Slovenia has two months to reply. The Commission also decided to send a complementary formal request for information to Latvia over the lack of effective structural separation between regulatory and ownership functions following a transfer of telecoms regulatory tasks between Ministries.