Serbia needs to make more efforts in the field of electronic communications, information society and media on its way towards EU membership, in particularly the digitalisation process, which the European Union has already supported with more than 10 million Euros.
“The European Commission has immediate concerns in this area, in particular as regards implementation of the digital switch-over as the deadline of 17 June 2015 quickly approaches, and urgent adoption of relevant media laws linked to the digitalisation process,” the EU Delegation’s Head of Economy and European Integration Section Freek Janmaat said.
“The EU has already supported ditigalisation process in Serbia to the tune of EUR8 million for equipment and EUR2.5 million for consulting services,” Janmaat told a round table on Liberalisation of telecoms sector in Serbia held on April 16 in Belgrade.
The EU also expects Serbia to urgently adopt the national broadband strategy and the use of the digital dividend, giving further boost to the telecoms sector.
Bilateral and explanatory screening exercises with Serbia will address remaining legislative with regards to the electronic communication networks – Chapter10 at the meetings scheduled for the end of May and July, Janmaat said.
“Liberalisation of the Telecommunications market is one of the most important challenges that the National Regulatory Authorities and the respective governments face, requiring adequate planning and forethought.
“Nevertheless, key factor in the success and at the same time the main challenge for the Telecom sector is the development of a legal and a regulatory framework that promotes the production of new and better products and services with affordable prices for the society, while stimulating innovative research and economic development and ultimately promoting prosperity,” he concluded.
According to him the implementation of competitive safeguards is taken as a basic mechanism which enables competition in a liberalised electronic communications market. “Here Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro lead the way in implementing all competitive safeguards. Serbia lags behind but a recent positive development is the introduction and implementing of the fixed number portability as of April 1, which enables competition in the fixed voice telephony services.”
“We expect that outstanding issues with regards to ADSL portability and incumbent’s outdated analogue stations, affecting some operators and end users to be resolved in the forthcoming period,” he said.
