ECONOMY

Greece threatened with fines over telecom services

Brussels – The European Commission yesterday served a timely reminder as to why Greece lags so far behind other European Union countries in the adoption of the Internet, especially broadband services, by threatening to impose heavy fines for non-compliance with existing EU directives on telecommunications deregulation and for ignoring a European Court of Justice order. Greece is the only EU member state not to have passed a law in compliance with EU Directive 2002/77 abolishing «exclusive or special rights to the installation and provision of public electronic services.» The directive was approved in July 2002 and the – then 15 – EU members had until July 2003 to comply. Greece was the only one that did not, and still has not, though the 10 new members that joined in May 2004 have complied. On April 14, 2005, the European Court of Justice found that Greece had «failed in carrying out its obligations,» rejecting the government’s reasoning that it was in the middle of passing the law but that elections had delayed a vote in Parliament. «Internal reasons are not sufficient to justify a failure to transpose a directive,» the court said. Nine months later, Greece still has not made any moves toward passing such a law. «If Greece does not inform the Commission that it has complied with the court ruling, the Commission may refer Greece to the court for a second time and request the court to impose fines,» the Commission said in a reasoned opinion, the last step before sending the case back to the court with a request to impose fines. Greeks must «no longer (be) denied the benefits enjoyed in other member states in terms of lower priced and better quality fixed voice telephony and access to new broadband services,» Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said. According to Commission data, 22 percent of Greek households have Internet access at home, the lowest rate after Lithuania and less than half the EU average. Only 0.8 percent have broadband connections, less than one-tenth the EU average.

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