WRITTEN QUESTION E-1244/00 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Ministerial concessions for radio-relay systems frequencies.
13. 2. 2001 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 46 E/155 (2001/C 46 E/178) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1244/00 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission (14 April 2000) Subject: Ministerial concessions for radio-relay systems frequencies Italian operators in the dedicated radio-relay systems sector, a telecommunications technique used by the police, Provinces, Forestry Service and emergency services among others, have been complaining for some time about the confusing and bureaucratic procedures used by the Italian Ministry of Communications for granting the necessary frequencies, which often takes two years or more. Apart from this inefficiency, the fees charged for licences for the frequencies have apparently suddenly in a sector in which market forces and recent liberalisation have, on the increased almost threefold, contrary, pushed tariffs down. Can the Commission say whether the relevant Italian legislation complies with Community competition rules and whether this increase, which, significantly, coincides with the advent of cellular mobile is in any way attributable to more or less visible cartels operated by mobile phone communications, companies? Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission (8 June 2000) It is true that Italian operators have complained to the Commission about the time taken for this procedure and the fees charged by the Italian Communications Ministry for granting frequencies for mobile communications for closed user groups. Italian law governs telecommunications services offered to the public differently from those offered to closed user groups, although Commission Directive 90/388/EEC of 28 June 1990 on competition in the markets for telecommunications services (1) makes no such distinction. This Directive requires the Member States to take the necessary measures to guarantee the right of any economic operator to provide these telecommunications services. It also provides that as long as frequencies are available a Member State may not refuse to allocate them. The requirement is all the simpler to implement for mobile communications for private use as these services do not, in general, require exclusive frequencies to be allocated. The Italian authorities have announced that a regulation intended to solve the curent difficulties is to be adopted, though this has not yet been done. The Commission has contacted the Italian authorities on this subject several times, most recently by letter dated March 2000. If no progress is made, the Commission will be obliged to send a formal letter of complaint to the Italian Government. The Commission has no information suggesting that the increase in frequency fees may be intended to favour mobile network operators. (1) OJ L 192, 24. 7. 1990. (2001/C 46 E/179) WRITTEN QUESTION E-1248/00 by Ioannis Souladakis (PSE) to the Council (27 April 2000) Subject: Turkish ágreen passportsí In spite of representations from various European governments to date, Turkey is continuing to issue ágreen passportsí to Turkish nationals who are travelling abroad, especially to Europe. These passports enable Turkish citizens to avoid obtaining a visa for countries which they are about to visit and are usually issued to high-ranking Turkish state officials and members of their families