site.btaParliament Adopts Two Bills Amending Electronic Communications Act

Parliament on Thursday adopted at first reading two of three bills amending the Electronic Communications Act. At first reading, two bills submitted by the Council of Ministers and MP Martin Dimitrov of Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria received support by 117 and 143 votes in favour respectively.

MPs rejected amendments to the Electronic Communications Act proposed by Bozhidar Bozhanov with 52-22 and 82 abstentions.

The report of the transport committee states that the bill, submitted by the Council of Ministers, aims to bring Bulgarian legislation in line with the requirements of the European regulation on the single market for digital services. A European Digital Services Council has been set up at European level and each EU member state should designate one national authority to act as national coordinator for digital services, the report says. The proposed amendments would regulate the powers of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) as the coordinator for digital services, which would oversee the activities of providers of intermediary information society services that are not video-sharing platforms. The Electronic Media Council has been designated as the competent authority under the European regulation to supervise the activities of providers of information society intermediary services that are video-sharing platforms, the report adds.

Amendments proposed by MP Martin Dimitrov provide for a possibility, in case of unilateral adjustment of the prices of the contracts for the provision of electronic communications services by the providers, the end users to be able to withdraw from them without penalty. According to the proposer, this measure could also strengthen competition between mobile operators.

The bill to amend and supplement the Electronic Communications Act, tabled by Bozhidar Bozhanov and a group of MPs, aims to guarantee the right to mobile number portability, regardless of who has terminated the contract with the mobile operator. The bill was rejected by the plenary.