Proposition 52K1813

Projet de loi portant des dispositions diverses en matière de communications électroniques.

General information ¶

Submitted by

CD&V the Van Rompuy government

Submission date

Feb. 13, 2009

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

EC Directive consumer protection competition electronic mail public sector postal and telecommunications services telecommunications

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA LDD MR FN VB

Abstained from voting

Groen Ecolo

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

March 26, 2009 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, the bills submitted to vote partially transpose six European directives and aim to strengthen the IBPT in its role as a regulator.

The first bill aims to strengthen the regulator’s arbitration role in order to restore investor confidence and thereby boost the information society for the benefit of consumers and ⁇ by establishing clearer and safer rules. During the discussion of the articles, those that were not the subject of any observations were adopted unanimously. In addition, the members of the committee submitted some amendments concerning Articles 8, 10, 12, 25 and 30.

Article 12, as amended by Mr. Geerts, and which concerns public administrations in general, was adopted.

Three amendments were submitted for Article 25, at the initiative of Mr. by Deseyn. One amendment meant that all fund expenses for emergency services would be taken into account. Another concerned fund charges, so that they should also be borne by mobile operators who do not use network endpoints. Specifically, charges for mobile operators would be distributed according to the number of active users. The latest amendment tends to ensure that the IBPT does not only coordinate with emergency services but also with operators on the format of the calling line identification.

Article 25 as amended by the amendments of Mr. Deseyn was adopted unanimously.

After discussion, the committee rejected the amendments to Articles 8, 10 and 30 concerning the Ethics Committee.

The amended bill was approved by 13 votes and one abstention.

The second bill concerns the procedures for appeals against IBPT decisions and the settlement of disputes by the Competition Council. The objective is clearly to strengthen the effective settlement of disputes. Therefore, the draft contains clarifications on how to introduce the case, a strict procedural schedule for the exchange of coins, a precisely identified right of action, a precise definition of the role of the Court of Appeal in the annulment and suspension of administrative decisions, and a mark of the judicial action of the competent ministry.

The amendment was introduced by Mr. Designed and approved unanimously. by Mr. Deseyn stresses that the concept of "personally and directly concerned" receives a restrictive interpretation in Belgium and proposes that Article 2 authorizes any person with an interest to act.

In addition, the Minister may also appeal against the decisions of the IBPT. Indeed, while respecting the independence of the regulator, the Minister may consider that a decision of the IBPT infringes the rights of the consumer, which justifies his right to appeal.

The amended bill was adopted unanimously.

Mr. Speaker, ladies ministers, colleagues, in the field of telecommunications, this is what we are talking about here, there are many great players. I could use a little image speech, this time from the basketball world. In every match there are also referees between the big boys. There are also clear rules for the decisions of these arbitrators. They are needed if one wants the referees to be able to maintain themselves on the basketball field. This is not only in the interest of the referees, but also of the spectators and ⁇ of the players and the industry itself.

This is also the case in the telecom market. There are many different players, thank God. In Belgium, they make a turnover of more than one billion euros. An efficient arbitrator is important, both for consumers, for operators, and for the telecommunications sector as a whole.

With these bills, the BIPT gets a pair of shoes with solid socks so that it will be able to better stand its male in the future. BIPT, the Belgian Institute for Posts and Telecommunications, will be given more opportunities to impose direct fines. The appeal procedure is also accurately described and deepened.

It is not uncommon, which is an euphemism, that operators appeal against a BIPT decision. In the past, the relevant BIPT decision was suspended as long as the 18th Chamber of the Court of Appeal, the so-called 18th Chamber of the Court of Appeal, prepared its judgment. The result was then months or years of legal uncertainty, while in fact it was often procedural errors that were easily corrected, in some cases anyway.

Now, in some cases, the BIPT may take provisional measures. From now on, these provisional measures can last twice as long, four months instead of two months. With this last aspect, I am not undividedly happy. The goal must always be a performance regulator, a regulator that quickly transcends. The competent minister can ⁇ put the threshold high here, of course within the limits of the realistic.

At the beginning of 2009 the mandates of the members of the Board of the BIPT ended. We really have an opportunity here. Meanwhile, the selection process is ongoing. I hear that 33 candidates have applied to obtain a position in the BIPT Board. The selection will, of course, be vital for the further evolution, for the liberation of the sector, but also for the consumer rights and for the price setting.

The telecommunications market, where the BIPT monitors free competition and consumer interests, consists of 17 sub-markets. It would be a strong signal if the variable part of the salary of the new BIPT board members would directly depend on the extent to which the BIPT succeeds in opening up competition in these defined markets. I hope that the ministers present will also transmit this message to the competent minister, Mr Van Quickenborne.

The status and remuneration are regulated by a royal decree. I call on the competent minister to use this leverage of performance-oriented remuneration of top management.

When discussing the resolution, I spoke about the BIPT’s radiation controls. Since the beginning of January, the BIPT no longer has a legal framework for carrying out the controls of transmission installations for GSM antennas. It has become a regional competence.

I cannot reconcile with the Minister’s position that there is no problem, because we must trust the installers and the operators; because they will comply with the law.

It may be a wish, but it is ⁇ a naive and difficult to defend thought. The citizen seeks legal certainty and wants from concern verification of what is planted in the landscape. I understand that we are facing a conflict of jurisdiction, but we need to find solutions urgently. I call on the Government to urgently arrange a consultation with the Regions and to use the expertise present in the BIPT as much as possible, if necessary, at the regional level. For example, a transfer of officials can be arranged. It is difficult to ask the market or the taxpayer to contribute to the proper functioning of the institutions, including the BIPT, when, in fact, a part of that administration is not allowed to carry out its work. I predict a political problem as soon as concrete figures are quoted. I call for urgent work on this.

Technical adjustment is also necessary when distributing the burden. In this, the regions should be able to take their role.

I read in the budget tables for institutions such as the BIPT that a certain annual surplus will be cumulated with the previous years, which in turn will flow to the general public resources. That is a little correct attitude towards the operators. This can be done through a certain tax. Working with a tax, under the influence of the BIPT, which is subsequently removed, is, in my opinion, not the right way of working.

As part of these designs, we also talked about an upgrade of the Code of Ethics. As you know, colleagues, the abuses of gsm ringtones, ringtones and paying SMS services are at my heart. I have spoken to the competent ministers on this subject several times.

The Royal Decree on a Code of Ethics has been awaiting since the Telecommunications Act of 2005. The previous government did not take any initiative or decision. I am pleased that the current government is now working on the elaboration of the Royal Decree concerning an ethical code. We hope to welcome you very soon.

The current self-regulatory code for SMS services has often remained dead letter. We must dare to admit that. Certainly the foreign service providers, of which there are quite a few, stick the aforementioned code to their lips. Governments and operators also have a responsibility in this regard. They often follow the facts or do not always act appropriately.

Colleagues, the present draft law ⁇ contains one non-essential sentence, which obliges operators to cooperate in the identification of violations of the Code of Ethics. That is a very good thing. There are a lot of providers with bad intentions. This can be formed from the questions we receive from the afflicted. In order to gain access to the aforementioned providers, the cooperation of the operators is ⁇ required.

I want to point out the problem.

These include services through the numbers 070, 0900, 0901, 0902, and so on. The aforementioned numbers each have a different purpose and a different rate. Sometimes that is 1 euro per minute, then again that is 4 euros per minute. However, no consumer knows the differences. If the rate exceeds some thresholds, the caller will hear a spoken message indicating how much the rate will be – or he should receive that message anyway.

I wonder why in some cases a tariff message is given and in other cases not. Wouldn’t consumer confidence increase if the message was delivered in a systematic way? In this way the caller knows that every call to a paying number is systematically given a tariff message. That would be a real simplification.

I hope that the previous message will permeate from the hemisphere to the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Simplification. The aforementioned simplification will be a nice step in the right direction and will ⁇ give the present designs full effect.

I would like to thank the rapporteur for her report.

I will not compare myself to basketball. I am too small for that. I would like to use this forum only to re-submit the three amendments we have submitted to the committee. We believe that strengthening the Ethics Committee is important.

During the debate, your colleague stated that he did not disagree with my amendments. However, he was not sure that its support level would be large enough.

I looked at something more closely. The support seems to me to be sufficiently large, as the amendments come at the request of, for example, the Platform Telecom Operators. They have sent a letter to the Ethics Committee asking for clarification on the matter.

Therefore, we re-submit the three amendments that we have submitted to the committee but which were not approved, with the understanding that we want to improve the present draft law. We have approved the draft in the committee, but would like to take advantage of the opportunity at this plenary session to make improvements to the draft.

This is not a constructive opposition. Yes, Mr. President, that still exists.

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Emancipation, I did not dare to say that.

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We are a constructive group, Mr. Speaker.

The first amendment concerns the distinction between operators and service providers. It is important to make a distinction – which is also confirmed by the State Council – so that everyone knows who can address the ethics committee. Those who advertise with ringtones, games and other attributes in nighttime broadcasts are the service providers. This is our first amendment, which we are submitting again.

The second is the direct control of the ethics committee. Today, there is a post control. We actually want to reinstall a pre-information so that there is a list with the ethics committee so that work can be done faster. The amendment has not been held in the committee, but I hope that the Minister has instructed his services to further monitor this. This is an amendment that should normally be carried out by your colleague.

A third amendment concerns the financing of the Ethics Committee. So far, I have said very little about it. It is true that it is a strong improvement for the BIPT, but it seems to me too much that the ethics committee has to shoulder to get its funding around. Therefore, I think we should take the opportunity to strengthen the ethics committee, so that in a few months we do not have to come back on the floor again to fix something.

This was a very constructive speech. I hope that the majority will take our arguments to heart and make improvements to the legislation.