NATIONAL REGULATORY

AUTHORITY

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 - Structure

RATEL has 108 full-time employees + 2 trainees

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)

Thank you for your attention Brussels, 10-11 July 2014