The draft Decision for adoption of Rules of procedure and terms for approving (coordination) of the General conditions of contracts with postal services consumers is submitted for consultation with the stakeholders and has been published on the CRC’s website under the section Public consultations.

On 17.06.2016, the Communications Regulation Commission, in cooperation with Stara Zagora municipality, held a mobile reception-room for consumers in Stara Zagora city.

The aim was Commission’s experts to fully assist consumers from Stara Zagora city and the region with consultation and solving problems related to the use of electronic communications services.

Problems with mobile phone coverage, problems of negotiated contracts, terms of promotions offered and charged high bills, problems in receiving of digital broadcasting and others have been discussed with consumers and mayors of towns in the region.

The Commission annually holds reception-rooms in locations throughout the country.

For all the issues raised and written signals submitted during the reception-room held in Stara Zagora city the necessary measures will be taken, as for any established violations, the sanctions laid down in the Law on electronic communications will be imposed.

For the purpose of maximizing transparency and public awareness, the results of the reception-room have been announced by the CRC’s Chairman Mr. Veselin Bozhkov, PhD.

During the 10^th ERGP meeting held on July 01^st in Bulgaria the Chairman of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) Mr Veselin Bozhkov PhD, and the President of the the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM) Mr Catalin Marinescu signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of electronic communications.

The purpose of the Memorandum is to establish a common base for bilateral cooperation between CRC and ANCOM on issues related to the regulation of electronic communications markets and services through regular exchange of information, experience and documentation.

The cooperation between the Parties will be in support of their regulatory activities directed towards promoting competition in the sector and protecting the interests of end users in line with the best international and European practices.

CRC and ANCOM will regularly carry out bilateral consultations in order to set the priorities for cooperation, exchange views and undertake coordinated actions and joint positions before European and other international fora and organisations related to the communications sector.

The signing of this Memorandum is in line with CRC’s policy for expanding and deepening the interaction with the national regulatory authorities of the neighbouring countries of Bulgaria.     

On 1 July the European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP) held its 10^th Plenary meeting in Bulgaria, under the chairmanship of Veselin Bozhkov PhD, Chairman of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC).

During the Plenary meeting, the ERGP members took note of the progress in the implementation of the work programmes of all sub-groups. All activities of the sub-groups are in compliance with the Project Requirement Documents.

The ERGP Members also took a decision to amend the ERGP Rules of Procedure with regard to the electronic voting procedure which from now on will be preceded by a comments round.

The proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on cross-border parcel delivery services [COM(2016)285final] was discussed in-depth, particularly as it will require input from the NRAs and therefore have an immediate impact on the ERGP work programme.

Furthermore, ERGP Members also started the preparation for the work of the ERGP for the next year.The Plenary meeting was preceded by an open Stakeholder Workshop. This Workshop focused on a discussion paper on the elaboration of a Medium Term Strategy “On the directions for the ERGP’s future work for the period 2017-2019” that had been subject to public consultation. It is the first time since the establishment of ERGP in 2010 that such a forward looking document on ERGP’s main priorities in the next 3 years has been prepared. More than 110 participants, representatives of over 30 European regulators, postal operators and organizations engaged in the postal services sector discussed the opinions presented and the issues raised by the discussion document. The findings of this workshop together with the views presented by the stakeholders will serve as an important input for the final elaboration of the ERGP Medium Term Strategy.

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.

To whom it may concern

Pursuant to the provision of Art. 13, paragraph 1 of the Tariff for the fees collected by the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) under the Law on Electronic Communications (the Tariff), adopted by Decree No. 374 of the Council of Ministers of 29.12.2011 (Promulgated, State Gazette No. 107/ 31.12.2011) the annual fee for use of individually assigned scarce resource shall be paid in four equal installments by the end of the month preceding the quarter. In this regard we remind you that the deadline for the third quarter expires on 30 June 2016.

The fees shall be paid by payment order to account IBAN BG78 BNBG 9661 30 001226 01, BIC code of the Bulgarian National Bank BNBG BGSD, City of Sofia, 1 “Kniaz Alexander I” square.

Contact phones: 02/949 2960 and 02/949 2739

The first for this year Contact Network meeting of ERGP (European Regulators Group for Postal Services) was held on 26 May in Sofia under the chairmanship of CRC.

At the meeting the European Commission’s representatives informed the participants about the published proposal of the European Parliament and of the Council for a Regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services and a discussion paper on the ERGP Mid-term strategy.

The chairs of the subgroups reported on the progress in their work and the future activities:

I.  Working group on ERGP Medium term Strategy (AGCOM - Italy);

II. Sub-group on regulatory accounting/price regulation (OFCOM – Great Britain, ANCOM - Romania);

III. Sub-group on Implementation and evolution of the universal service obligation (USO) (PTS - Sweden, AGCOM – Italy);

IV. Sub-group on End user satisfaction and monitoring of market outcome with 2 work streams:

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

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

V. Sub-group on cross-border e-commerce parcels delivery (BNetzA – Germany, ARCEP - France);

VI. Sub-group on End-to-end Competition and Access regulation (BNetzA - Germany, RRT - Lithuania).

Information was presented during the meeting about the forthcoming 10^-th ERGP Plenary meeting in Bulgaria, the timetable for elaborating a draft Work Programme for 2017 and the forthcoming stakeholder workshop on the ERGP Mid-term Strategy in Bulgaria.

The meeting ended with discussion on the future meetings in 2016.