The European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP) held its second Plenary meeting for 2016 in Naples under the chairmanship of Mr Veselin Bozhkov, PhD, Chairman of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) of Bulgaria.

The Plenary approved, for the first time since ERGP’s establishment, a multi-annual program document, the ERGP Medium Term Strategy (MTS) for 2017-2019, reflecting the ERGP's main priorities for the next three years. The MTS reflects the key policy and regulatory principles that derive from the Postal Service Directive, namely: ensuring a sustainable universal service; contributing to the development of a single market for postal services, including the promotion of competition; and protecting end-users.

Furthermore, the Plenary approved the Draft ERGP Work Programme 2017, setting out the ERGP’s tasks for the year 2017 in line with the MTS. It will be submitted to public consultation before final approval.

The Plenary also approved the following documents:

• ERGP Report on comparative working methods for considering efficiency of postal operators.

• ERGP Report on Universal Services in light of changing Postal end users´ needs.

• ERGP Report on the quality of service, complaint handling and consumer protection 2015 - an analysis of trends.

• ERGP Report on the core indicators for monitoring the European postal market – an analysis of trends.

• ERGP Report on the development of end-to-end-competition and access regulation across the EU Member States in the light of recent jurisdiction concerning discount regimes in the postal sector.

• ERGP Report on transparency for online sellers and consumers as regards cross-border e-commerce parcels delivery

All the documents will shortly be published on the ERGP website:

http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/postal-services/ergp_en

The Plenary session was preceded by a workshop on the ERGP's efficiency aimed at identifying possible improvements to the ERGP in terms of  transparency, visibility, internal organization and operational efficiency.

The 2015 Chair (Mr. Feliksas Dobrovolskis, RRT Lithuania) and the 2016 Chair (Dr. Veselin Bozhkov, CRC Bulgaria) will serve as Vice-Chairs in 2017 to support the 2017 Chair (Prof. Angelo Marcello Cardani, AGCOM Italy).

About the ERGP

The ERGP is composed of the 28 national regulatory authorities (NRAs) for postal services of the EU, as well as national regulatory authorities from countries of the European Economic Area and countries with candidate status to join the EU.

The ERGP’s tasks are to advise and assist the Commission in consolidating the internal market for postal services or any other matter related to postal services within its competence.

Furthermore, the ERGP is advising on and assisting the Commission with the development of the internal market for postal services and as to the consistent application in all Member States of the regulatory framework for postal services.

Contact details: GROW-ERGP@ec.europa.eu

The Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) launches a public consultation procedure under Art. 37 of the Law on Electronic Communications on a draft Reference Offer submitted by BTC and the CRC’s position on its amendment. The position elaborated by CRC in the form of a draft Decision on giving binding instructions for amendment to the Reference Offer aims to ensure effective implementation of the specific obligations imposed on BTC.

The draft Decision and Reference Offer have been published on the Commission’s website – www.crc.bg under the section Public consultation. 

By its Decision No. 550 of 20.10.2016 the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) adopted a final Decision on determining cost-oriented prices for call termination at a fixed location on individual public telephone networks for the period 2016 – 2020 based on the costs of an effective operator, calculated by means of an adapted BULRIC model of the Commission.

The CRC final Decision takes into account both the results from the conducted public consultations with the stakeholders and the position of the European Commission (ЕC).

The final Decision is published on the CRC’s website www.crc.bg, under the section „Final decisions on imposed specific obligations”.

By its Decision No. 544 of 20.10.2016 the Communications Regulation Commission adopted after a public consultations procedure a Draft Decision on determining cost-oriented prices for call termination on individual mobile telephone networks for the period 2016 – 2020 based on the costs of an effective operator, calculated by means of an adapted  BULRIC model of the Commission, .

Pursuant to the provisions of the Law on Electronic Communications the Draft Decision has been sent for comments to the European Commission, the Body of the European Regulators for Electronic Communications and to the National Regulatory Authorities of the EU Member States.

The Draft Decision and the results from the conducted public consultations are published on the CRC’s website www.crc.bg, under the section „Public consultations”.

By its Decision No. 531 of 13.10.2016  the Communications Regulation Commission launches a public consultations procedure on establishing the interest in using the radiofrequency spectrum in the 800 MHz band.

By its Decision No 512 of 06.10.2016 the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) launched a public consultation procedure on a draft decision on amendment and supplement of the Technical requirements for operation of terrestrial networks permitting provision of electronic communications services.

The full text of the draft is published on the CRC’s website www.crc.bg under the section „Public consultations”.