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Legal and Institutional Framework
EU legislation:
• Directive 2002/22/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic
communications networks and services (Framework Directive) as amended
by Directive 2009/140/EC, Regulation (EC) No 717/2007 and Regulation
(EC) No 544/2009
• Regulation (EC) Nо 1211/2009 establishing the Body of European
Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and the Office) (Text
with EEА relevance)
National legislation:
Law on Electronic Communications (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 44/10 and
60/13 – Constitutional Court Dec.)
Institutional framework:
Republic Agency for Electronic Communications (RATEL)
Regulation Objectives and Principles (1)
The Law on Electronic Communications (Art. 3) lays down the objectives and
principles of electronic communications regulation:
– providing conditions for the development of electronic communications on the
entire territory of the Republic of Serbia;
– ensuring the predictability of business environment and equal conditions for all
operators;
– harmonizing activities in the electronic communications sector with national and
international standards,
– ensuring the availability of the universal service to all citizens of the Republic of
Serbia and meeting the needs of specific social groups, including persons with
disabilities, the elderly and socially vulnerable users;
– ensuring interconnection between electronic communications networks and
services, i.e. operators, on equal and mutually acceptable terms;
– promoting competition, efficiency and effectiveness in performing activities in the
electronic communications sector;
– promoting rational and efficient use of numbering and radio-frequency spectrum;
Regulation Objectives and Principles (2)
– ensuring maximum benefits to users of electronic communications, including
persons with disabilities, the elderly and socially vulnerable users, especially
regarding the choice, price and quality of services;
– ensuring high level protection of user rights, especially by providing clear and
complete information on prices, conditions of access and use (including
restrictions) the required quality of service, and effective action upon complaints
filed against operators;
– ensuring continuous improvement of quality of electronic communications
services;
– enabling the end-users of public communications networks and services to have
free access to and distribution of information and to use applications and
services of their choice;
– ensuring high level of protection of personal data and user privacy, in
accordance with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data and other laws;
– ensuring the security and integrity of public communications networks and
services.
RATEL - Legal Status
• The Republic Telecommunication Agency became operational and began working on
19 December 2005 according to the 2003 Law on Telecommunications and following
the enforcement of the Law on Electronic Communications (hereinafter: the Law) on
8 July 2010, continued to work as the Republic Agency for Electronic
Communications (RATEL)
• RATEL is an independent regulatory authority established in line with the Law on
Electronic Communications as an autonomous organization with the status of a legal
entity which exercises public authorities in order to effectively implement the established
electronic communications policy, promote competition in the sphere of electronic
communications networks and services, enhance their capacity and/or quality, contribute
to the development of electronic communications market and protect the interests of
users of electronic communications services, in accordance with this Law and the by-
laws adopted pursuant to this Law. (Art. 7, para. 1 of the Law)
• The Agency is functionally and financially independent of government authorities,
organizations and entities engaged in the electronic communications sector. (Art. 7,
para. 2 of the Law)
• The Agency shall operate pursuant to the provisions pertinent to public agencies. (Art. 7,
para. 3 of the Law)
RATEL – Competencies (1)
The Law on Electronic Communication, in compliance with the EU 2002 Regulatory
Framework, enables RATEL to:
• adopt by-laws;
• decide on the rights and obligations of operators and users;
• cooperate with agencies and organizations in charge of broadcasting,
competition protection, consumer protection, personal data protection and other
agencies and organizations on issues relevant for the electronic communications
sector;
• cooperate with the relevant regulatory and expert bodies of the European Union
Member States and other states for the purpose of harmonizing the practice of
implementing the electronic communications sector regulations and promoting
the development of cross-border electronic communications networks and
services;
• participate in the work of international organizations and institutions within the
electronic communications sector in the capacity of the national regulatory
authority within the electronic communications sector;
• perform other activities in accordance with this Law. (Art. 8 of the Law)
RATEL – Competencies (2)
RATEL’s competencies involve the following:
• keeping record of public communications network and service operators;
• issuance of certificates confirming that operators are registered with the Agency’s database of electronic communications operators;
• issuance of individual permits for the use of radio frequencies and numbering;
• identification and the analysis of relevant markets and imposing obligations on SMP operators;
• price control and the application of cost-accounting principle
• control of leased lines and usage of infrastructure;
• interconnection, LLU
• universal service,
• radio frequency spectrum management;
• monitoring the operators’ compliance with the imposed regulatory obligations
RATEL – Management Bodies
• The bodies of the Agency include the Managing Board and the Director (Art. 9
of the Law)
• The Managing Board of the Agency consists of five members, appointed by the
National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia at the proposal of the
Government. The term of office of 5 years and the same person may be
reappointed up to two times. (Art. 10 of the Law)
• The Director shall be responsible for the lawfulness of the work of the Agency,
he/she shall represent and act on behalf of the Agency, manage the activities
and business operations of the Agency, decide on the rights, obligations and
responsibilities of the Agency’s employees, prepare and implement decisions of
the MB and perform other tasks specified in this Law or special laws and in
the Statute of the Agency. The Director is appointed and relieved from office
by the Managing Board to a term of five years and may be reappointed. The
Director is held responsible for his/her work by the Managing Board, and
submits annual and periodical reports to the Managing Board. (Art. 17 of the
Law)
RATEL – Decision Making
• Pursuant to the Law, at the request of interested parties or in the line of duty, the
Agency decides on the rights and duties of operators and users, by a decision passed
by the Director of the Agency.
• The law which regulates the general administrative procedure is applied to the
decision-making procedure on the rights and obligations.
• The decisions are final and administrative litigation may be initiated against them,
however the litigation does not postpone the execution of the decision.
• The Managing Board passes rules on procedures, decisions and other general by-
laws with the purpose of regulating the general issues within the scope of activities
of the Agency.
• Prior to the publication of general by-laws the Agency shall obtain the statement on
their constitutionality and lawfulness from the Ministry, and the Ministry shall
provide a reasonable proposal on the manner of bringing the general by-laws into
compliance with the Constitution, law and other regulations or general by-laws
adopted by the National Assembly and the Government, in accordance with the law
which regulates state administration. (Arts. 22-23 of the Law)
• RATEL adopted 19 Rulebooks under the Law on Electronic Communications.
RATEL - Transparency of the Work
The work of the Agency is transparent.
Apart from the obligation pertaining to making available of the by-laws adopted according to
the law which regulates state administration, the Agency shall, free of charge and
according to the provisions on the protection of personal data and business confidentiality,
make publicly available the adopted by-laws and other complete and updated data and
information from within its scope of activities, in particular:
• provisions for the implementation of this Law and other general by-laws;
• minutes from sessions and decisions of the Managing Board;
• registers, records and databases;
• comparative reviews of the quality and prices of the publicly available services and other
data relevant to the protection and promotion of consumer and/or end-user rights;
• expert opinions, studies and analyses commissioned by the Agency;
• statistical data and other indicators of the development of the electronic communications
market;
• other data and information related to the activities and business operation of the Agency.
(Art 24 of the Law)
Cooperation with the National
Competition Authority
• In the procedure of market analysis and designation of
SMP operators, RATEL cooperated with the competition
authority, as stipulated under the Law:
– In the procedure of market analysis, the Agency cooperates with
the competition protection authority. (Art. 60, para. 2)
– In adopting the decision on designating SMP operators, the Agency
shall request all interested parties to render opinions significant for
determining the obligations of the operator with SMP and, if
necessary, request the opinion of the competition protection
authority. (Art. 62, para. 3)
• RATEL signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the
Commission for Protection of Competition
RATEL - Financing • The financial assets for the work of the Agency are provided from the revenue
made by the Agency from the:
numbering fees,
radio-frequency usage fees,
fees for performing electronic communication activities,
revenue made from the provision of services within the competence of the Agency.
• The annual financial report of the Agency, adopted by the Managing Board, is
subject to audit by an independent chartered auditor.
• The difference between the revenue and expenditure in the annual financial report
is paid into the relevant public revenue account of the Treasury of the Republic of
Serbia and used through the responsible ministry for the promotion and
development of electronic communications and information society. A part of the
revenue, proportional to the revenue made by the electronic communication
network and services operators in the territory of the Autonomous Province of
Vojvodina, is paid into the account of the Province Treasury and used through the
province authority in charge of electronic communication for the promotion and
development of electronic communication and information society in the territory
of AP Vojvodina. (Arts. 26-27 of the Law)
Sector Investments
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Investments (millions of EUR) 350 190 899 362 284 274 243 231 262
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Source: RATEL
Sector Revenues
- GDP share of the telecom sector
Source: RATEL
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1,600
1,800
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
7.2% 5.6% 4.7% 4.87% 4.76% 4.98% 5.66% 5.2% 4.85%
RATEL Revenues/Expenditures
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
2013 2014
Plan
Revenues
(millions of RSD)
0.455 405 722.7 1,237 1,810 1,917 1,335 1,405 1,486 1,197
Expenditure (millions
of RSD)
13.5 275 490.1 556 546 668 734 721 617 987
Surplus
(millions of RSD) paid
into the Treasuries of
RS and AP Vojvodina
(13.1) 115 232.6 681 1,264 1,249 601 684 869 210
Dispute Resolution
• SHARED USE
If the agreement on shared use is not signed within 60 days after the request,
the Agency shall be authorised to adopt a written decision, which shall
stipulate the conditions of the shared use, including the allocation of expenses,
taking into account previous investments, encouragement of further
investments and the possibility of a reasonable rate of return on investment,
bearing in mind the risk involved in making the investment.
• INTERCONNECTION AND ACCESS
Should any of the electronic communications operators fail to reach an
agreement on interconnection and/or access, the Agency shall be authorised to
adopt a decision, at the request of an operator or in the line of duty, within 60
days from the commencement of negotiations, to ensure interconnection and/or
access, including technical and commercial conditions. The operator with SMP
shall provide interconnection and access to other operators in accordance with
the provisions of this Law and the Agency's decision designating such operator
as an operator with SMP.
Operators’ Appeals
2007 – 2013
Total number of appeals 158
Total number of resolved appeals 103
Number of appeals won by the Agency
64
Number of appeals resolved to the benefit of
operators
39
Number of appeals in the process of being
resolved *
54
* Of the total 54 appeals in the process of being resolved, 5 appeals have been
brought before the Supreme Court.
RATEL – Regional Cooperation
In order to enhance regional cooperation RATEL signed
Memoranda of Understanding with the following NRAs:
• AEK, Macedonia
• CRC, Bulgaria
• EETT, Greece
• EKIP, Montenegro
• HAKOM, Croatia
• AKEP, Albania
• ICTA, Turkey
• UKE, Poland
• RAK, Bosnia and Hercegovina
RATEL in the EU Organizations
RATEL has been participating since May 2012 as an
Observer in BEREC:
• Board of Directors (BoR) meetings,
• Management Committee meetings,
• Contact Network (CN) meetings, and in
• Expert Working Groups (EWG) meetings since 2013.
(RATEL provided answers to147 BEREC questionnaires)
RATEL has been a full member of IRG since Sept. 2012.
Also, RATEL has been a full member of ETSI since 2007.
RATEL - Regulatory Challenges
The national regulation needs to be fully aligned with the 2009
Regulatory Framework:
Directive 2009/140/EC
Regulation (EC) No 717/2007
Regulation (EC) No 544/2009
BEREC Regulation
• The national regulation needs to be fully aligned with Arts. 3 and 19 of the
BEREC Regulation concerning the cooperation and the obligation of the
NRA to provide information to BEREC. In particular, with Arts. 7, 7a and
7b of the Directive 2009/140/EC, cited in Art. 3 of the Regulation, which
refer directly to Member States and, hence, shall not be applied before the
Serbian accession to the EU.
• Full membership in BEREC is reserved only to the EU Member Countries.
RATEL – Challenges (1)
• In 2012 and 2013 a set of laws were passed that impact RATEL’s functional and
financial independence, as reported in the Serbia 2013 Progress Report of the
European Commission in the section concerning Chapter 10: Information
Society and Media, stating that the amendments made to the budget law and the
law on public sector salaries in September 2012 have had great impact on the
National Regulatory Agency’s (RATEL) operational independence and its ability to
recruit and retain competent staff.
• Also, in November 2012 the Body of European Regulators for Electronic
Communications (BEREC) issued a communication expressing its concern at
the impact of some national legislative initiatives on the efficiency of the electronic
communications regulatory authority in performing its regulatory tasks and, in
turn, its independence.
• As the consequence of the mentioned set of laws, a number of highly qualified
employees left the Agency, while the problem of filling the vacancies after the
retirement of a number of employees in 2014 and 2015 also emerged.
RATEL – Challenges (2)
Law on Cinematography (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 99/11 and 2/12-corr., in force as of 3
July 2012)
• Article 19, paragraphs 3) and 4) of the Law on Cinematography laid down that the
assets for the promotion of the national cinematography shall be raised inter alia
from: 10% of the revenue made from the fees paid by the public telecommunications
operators to the Agency, to be paid no later than 30 June of the current year for the
revenue made in the previous year.
• RATEL transferred 115.4 million dinars to the account of the Film Centre Serbia in
2012, whereas the expected payment for 2013 amounts to 143.6 million dinars.
• In March 2012, the Agency submitted the initiative to the Constitutional Court of the
Republic of Serbia for the review of the constitutionality of this law.
• Following RATEL’s initiative, on 3 April 2014 the Constitutional Court of the
Republic of Serbia found that the aforesaid provisions do not comply with the
Constitution (Constitutional Court Decision IUz-128/2012, Official Gazette 46/14).
RATEL – Challenges (3)
Law amending the Law on Budgetary System (Official Gazette of RS, no. 93/12)
Sets out, as types of non-tax revenue, charges and fees:
• Charges are collected for a directly provided public services and/or completed procedure or activity,
where public services are defined as all services that beneficiaries of the public assets are bound to
provide to legal and natural entities, pursuant to the law. The amount is set by the entities authorised
by a separate law. In accordance with this law, RATEL passed a bylaw regulating relevant charges.
• Fees are collected for the use of goods identified by a separate law as natural resources and/or goods
of general interest and goods in general use, and they may not be introduced by any law other than
separate law proposed and implemented by the ministry in charge of the finance. This particular
solution is contrary to Arts. 29-33 of the Law on Electronic Communications, regulating these types
of fees.
Law amending the Law on Budgetary System (Official Gazette of RS, no. 108/13)
• Art. 6 stipulates the proscription for the beneficiaries of the public assets to hire new employees in
order to fill job vacancies, either existing or created by an employment termination, until 31
December 2015.
• RATEL and the Republic Agency for Postal Services are the only regulatory authorities that
are not exempt from this proscription by the provisions of the Art. 6. of this law.
Law Setting a Salary Cap in the Public Sector (Official Gazette of RS, no. 93/12)
• Applies to the salaries of RATEL’s employees, setting the cap for the maximum and the minimum
salary in the public sector. Several regulatory authorities are exempted from this law.
Latest Developments
Amendments to the Law (Official Gazette of RS, 62/14)
• In force as of 21 June 2014
• Technological neutrality introduced in the usage of RF spectrum and
numbering recourses, at RATEL’s proposal
• The Republic Agency for Postal Services (RAPUS) adjoined to RATEL
- The Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal
Services
• Data retention provisions of the Law aligned with the Constitutional
Court Dec. IUz-1425/2010 (Official Gazette of RS, 60/13)
• Fund for the promotion and development of the electronic
communications and information society established, to be financed
from RATEL’s surplus and managed by the Ministry
Appendix: National Legislation (1)
• Law on Electronic Communications (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 44/10 and 60/13-CC Dec.)
List of bylaws adopted by RATEL:
• Statutes of the Republic Agency for Electronic Communications (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 59/10)
• Rules on number portability on public mobile telecommunication networks (Official Gazette of RS, no. 5/10)
• Decision designating operators with obligation to provide universal service (Official Gazette of RS, no. 15/10)
• Decision on the manner of keeping registers, records, data bases and other information within the competence of the
Republic Agency for Electronic Communications and publishing thereof on RATEL’s website (adopted on 11.02.2011.
by RATEL’s Managing Board, available at www.ratel.rs)
• Rules on radio-frequency usage fees (Official Gazette of RS, no. 93/10)
• Rules on fees for the performance of electronic communications activities (Official Gazette of RS, no. 93/10)
• Rules on application forms for the issuance of individual licence for the use of radio-frequencies (Official Gazette of
RS, nos. 8/11 and 2/14)
• Rules on application form for the issuance of licence for the use of numbering (Official Gazette of RS, no. 32/11)
• Numbering Plan (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 32/11, 35/12 and 64/13)
• Rules on general terms and conditions for performing electronic communication activities under general authorization
regime (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 38/11, 44/11-corr. and 13/14)
• Rules on number portability on public telephone networks at a fixed location (Official Gazette of RS, no. 52/11)
• Rules on the application of the cost-accounting principle, separate accounts and reporting of an operator with
significant market power in the electronic communications sector (Official Gazette of RS, no. 52/11)
Appendix: National Legislation (2)
• Rules on manner of amateur radio station usage (Official Gazette of RS, no. 53/11)
• Decision on designating relevant markets susceptible to ex-ante regulation (Official Gazette of RS, no. 59/11)
• Rules on the manner of monitoring the radio frequency spectrum usage, technical inspection procedure and protection
from harmful interference (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 60/11 and 35/13)
• Rules on the manner of radio stations usage on the national and foreign aircrafts, locomotives, ships and other vessels
(Official Gazette of RS, nos. 60/11 and 68/11-corr.)
• Rules on the amount of annual fee for the use of numbering (Official Gazette of RS, no. 67/11)
• Rules on the scope and content of the minimum set of leased lines (Official Gazette of RS, no. 70/11)
• Rules on the minimum content, level of detail and manner of publication of reference offers (Official Gazette of RS, no.
70/11)
• Rules on quality parameters for publicly available electronic communication services and monitoring of electronic
communication activity (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 73/11 and 3/14)
• Rules on obligations of value added services provider (Official Gazette of RS, nos. 76/11 and 91/11-corr.))
• Rules on the terms and conditions for access to and usage of the data from a public directory (Official Gazette of RS,
no. 84/11)
• Rules on the manner of radio frequency usage under general authorization regime (Official Gazette of RS, no. 28/13)
• Rules on fee calculation for the provision of services within the competence of the Republic Agency for Electronic
Communications (Official Gazette of RS, no. 34/13)
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