European Commission takes Belgium, Luxembourg to court over telecom regulation

The European Commission has referred Belgium to Europe's highest court saying it ignored a formal request to amend its laws to guarantee the independence of its telecoms industry regulator.

The European Commission has referred Belgium to Europe's highest court saying it ignored a formal request to amend its laws to guarantee the independence of its telecoms industry regulator.

The European Union's executive said on Thursday it had asked the Belgian government last April to give up its powers to suspend decisions taken by the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT), which the Commission said could affect the regulator's ability to ensure fair competition in the telecoms market.

Under EU rules, national regulators must be free from political interference and not "take or seek instructions" when regulating the market and settling disputes.

The referral of the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) means that Belgium could be forced to change its laws so that the government can no longer interfere in the BIPT's decisions or require the BIPT to submit its multi-annual strategy for approval.

"The Commission considers that these elements limit the independence of the BIPT when implementing EU telecom rules and that this can have negative consequences for competition in the sector," it said.

The Commission has the power to take any of the 28 member states to court for flouting or failing to implement EU law.

Luxembourg taken to court
The Commission also referred Luxembourg to the ECJ on Thursday for failing to conduct regular reviews of its telecoms sector to determine whether obligations still need to be imposed on leading telecoms operators such as Mobistar and Belgacom to ensure competition.

National regulators across the EU have to conduct reviews of the wholesale and retail parts of the telecoms market every three years to decide whether regulatory intervention is needed to foster competition.

However Luxembourg's authority, the Institut Luxembourgeois de Regulation, last carried out a review of the retail market for fixed voice calls and the wholesale market for leased broadband lines in 2007, meaning it could have imposed regulations in the meantime which were not actually necessary, the Commission said.

Luxembourg is expected to complete a review of the leased lines market in November, but there is no timetable for an analysis of competition in the market for fixed phone calls.