WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3292/97 by Wolfgang KREISSL-DÖRFLER to the Commission. Market access for least developed countries
Date: 1997-10-20
Institutions: European Parliament, KREISSL-DOERFLER
Subjects: ACP countries, Lomé Convention, developing countries, generalised preferences, market access, third country, trade policy

25. 5. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 158/79

Under Article 12(1) of Directive 95/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1995
on the application of open network provision (ONP) to voice telephony (2), Member States have to ensure that
voice  telephony  tariffs  are  cost  oriented.  This  obligation  will  be  maintained  in  the  revised  wording  of  this
Directive (now Article 17), which is currently in final process of adoption. A number of Member States have
nevertheless not yet ensured that their telecommunications organisations implement a cost accounting system
allowing monitoring of the effective implementation of the principle of cost-orientation. However, the entry of
competitors in this market segment will in any case lead to further tariff rebalancing.

The  second  reason  for  the  tariff  differences  between  domestic  and  cross-border  calls  is  that  the  underlying
infrastructure was designed on a national basis in the framework of the national monopolies. To address this cost
structure, new infrastructure must be established, e.g. alongside the railway tracks. Since 1 July 1996, Member
States must allow the roll out of such networks for the provision of services other than voice telephony and from
1 January 1998, the remaining special and exclusive rights on the establishment of such infrastructures will have
to be lifted. On the other hand, the Commission is taking the possible contribution to the establishment of cross
border networks into account when authorising global alliances under Article 85 of the EC Treaty.

High cross border tariffs also result from the current level of interconnection tariffs and international settlement
rates. The Commission will scrutinise these tariffs and their justification on the basis of the principle set out in its
draft (cid:145)Notice on the application of the competition rules to access agreements in the telecommunications sector(cid:146),
which will soon be finalised. In particular, Article 86 EC Treaty prohibits operators in a dominant position from
discriminating between similar transactions, and also prohibits them from charging excessive prices. The price
charged  by  operators  for  call  termination  should  be  related  to  the  actual  costs  of  providing  the  service,  and
operators can only discriminate between national and cross-border call termination charges to the extent that
there is a genuine cost difference to the operator in providing these services.

Article  7(2)  of  Directive  97/33/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  30  June  1997  on
interconnection in telecommunications with regard to ensuring universal service and interoperability through
application  of  the  principles  of  open  network  provision (3)  will  also  oblige  incumbent  telecommunications
organisations to offer cost oriented interconnection tariffs from 1 January 1998 onwards, which means that at
least  within  the  Community  the  current  high  settlement  rates  will  no  longer  be  applicable.  Cross  border
interconnection  tariffs  will  from  then  on  be  subject  to  interconnection  negotiations,  which  should  lead  to  a
considerable  decrease  in  tariffs  for  cross  border  calls  within  the  Community.  On  15  October  1997,  the
Commission  agreed  a  recommendation  on  interconnection  pricing  (to  be  published),  which  sets  out
recommended (cid:145)best practice(cid:146) interconnection charges based on the prices in the three lowest cost Member States.

Finally the amendment of Directive 97/33/EC which will impose the introduction of carrier selection on a call by
call basis or pre-selection and which is currently discussed in the Council, will reinforce the impact of these
measures.

(1)  OJ L 74, 22.3.1996.
(2)  OJ L 321, 30.12.1995.
(3)  OJ L 199, 26.7.1997.

(98/C 158/101)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3292/97

by Wolfgang Kreissl-Do¤rfler (V) to the Commission

(20 October 1997)

Subject: Market access for least developed countries

What  efforts  has  the  Commission  made  with  regard  to  the  Council  decision  to  encourage  third  countries  to
improve market access for the least developed countries?