The II^nd ERGP (European Regulators Group for Postal Services) Steering Group (SG) meeting was held on 21^st April 2016 in Sofia under the chairmanship of Mr. Veselin Bozhkov, PhD – Chairman of the Communications Regulation Commission and ERGP 2016 Chair.

The ERGP Chair - Mr. Veselin Bozhkov, PhD - presented his activities carried out in the first quarter of 2016, the forthcoming events which will be held inBulgaria - Stakeholder Workshop on the Medium Term Strategy, ERGP CN Meeting, ERGP Plenary Meeting and the progress in the preparation of the draft Work Programme 2017.

The SG was provided with information by the ERGP Secretariat, as well.

The subgroup Chairs reported on the state of play of the work and further activities:

I.            WG Mid-term Strategy (AGCOM - Italy)

II.            Subgroup on Regulatory accounting and price regulation (OFCOM - UK, ANCOM - Romania)

III.            Subgroup on Implementation and evolution of the USO (PTS - Sweden, AGCOM – Italy )

IV.           Subgroup on End-user satisfaction and monitoring of market outcomes, with the following work streams:

   1. the quality of service, complaint handling and consumer protection indicators 2015 – an analysis of trends (BIPT - Belgium);

   2. the core indicators for monitoring the European postal market – an analysis of trends (ANACOM - Portugal)

V.            Subgroup on Cross-border parcels delivery for e-commerce purposes (BNetzA - Germany, ARCEP - France)

VI.            Subgroup on End-to-End Competition and Access Regulation (BNetzA - Germany, RRT - Lithuania)

The meeting concluded with a discussion on the forthcoming meetings.

About 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 European 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.

The Communications Regulation Commission urges all end users to proceed carefully in case they receive calls from numbers beginning with +2204. There are data available for telephone fraud carried out using such numbers where Bulgarian subscribers receive short-duration calls with the aim to incite them to call back.

Making outgoing calls to such numbers results in realization of undesired international traffic by the subscribers to destinations outside the European Union (Gambia). In order to avoid unfavourable financial consequences, CRC advises end users not to call back these numbers.

At its session held on 24.03.2016, the Communications Regulation Commission adopted a position on the application of art. 5, para. 5 of  Ordinance No 1 of 19 December 2008 on the terms and conditions for carrying out access and/or interconnection (promulgated SG, issue 5 of 20 January 2009).

The position is published under the section Areas of Regulation/Interconnection, access and leased lines.

The Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) informs the undertakings about their obligations to submit to CRC until 1 March 2016 reports on the activity for provision of electronic communications networks and/or services in 2015. This obligation arises under Art. 5, para 1 of the General requirements for provision of electronic communications.

CRC informs the undertakings that with the amendment of Art. 78 of the Law on Electronic Communications, the requirement for determining an additional deadline for submission of reports before the undertakings to be punished for the non-compliance has dropped as from 2015.

With regard to the above-mentioned, the undertakings which have not submitted to CRC reports for 2015 until 1 March 2016 shall be liable to a fine under the Art. 326 of the Law on Electronic Communications. The provided for in the law fines are between 3000 BGN and 15 000 BGN.

At this workshop the draft mid-term strategy of the European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP) will be developed.

The aim of the strategy is clear: to identify issues in the core postal market that have to be addressed at European level in order to facilitate the recognition of the postal sector as an essential component of the global economy.

To achieve this, the many factors challenging the postal sector, including globalisation, market liberalisation, competition, electronic substitution, the advancement of new technologies, and regional and national inequalities, should be taken into account.

The workshop will be an interactive public debate and will bring together stakeholders' views and expertise on developments and trends in the European postal market in order to increase effectiveness and transparency in the ERGP’s work.

All European postal stakeholders (postal services providers, consumer associations, postal industry associations, labour associations and e-retailers) are invited to express their views on the strategic/core issues at EU level that should be addressed in the ERGP mid-term strategy in the presence of ERGP members.

The resulting document will cover the period 2017-2019. The workshop will take place from 10.00 to 13.00. 

The 1^st ERGP (European Regulators Group for Postal Services) Steering Group (SG) meeting was held on 22^nd January 2016 in Brussels under the chairmanship of Veselin Bozhkov, PhD – Chairman of the Communications Regulation Commission and ERGP Chair for 2016.

At the meeting, the results of the public consultation on the Draft ERGP Work Programme 2016 were presented.  

The agenda also included  a discussion on the elaboration of a Mid-term strategy. The SG was provided with information by the ERGP Secretariat, as well.

Information on the PRDs of the 2016 ERGP subgroups was also presented and discussed:

-         Regulatory Accounting/Price Regulation

-         Implementation and evolution of the USO

-         End User satisfaction and monitoring of market outcomes

-         Cross-border parcels delivery for e-commerce purposes

-         End-to-End Competition and Access Regulation

The meeting concluded with a discussion of the dates of the forthcoming meetings.

About 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 European 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.