Press Release: Telecoms Rules: implementation progresses in Bulgaria and Germany

The implementation of EU Telecom rules continues to improve across the EU. For the first time, the European Commission was able to close an infringement procedure against Bulgaria, following steps taken to ensure the independence of the national authorities responsible for regulation in the field of telecoms. The 2002 EU Telecoms Framework Directive requires that national regulators should be legally and functionally independent. The Commission also welcomed a decision by the German Federal Administrative Court confirming the powers of the German telecoms regulator (the Bundesnetzagentur) in the mobile termination market, which brought German regulatory practice in line with EU Telecoms rules. According to the Access Directive, which is part of the 2002 EU Telecoms rules, national regulatory authorities need to have clearly defined powers to regulate also the market for mobile termination rates.

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