On 15 January 2021 the remote meeting of the Steering Committee of the Twinning Project in Ukraine “Strengthening the Regulatory Capacity of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization in the Areas of Market Access and Quality of Service Monitoring System” took place, where the activity report of the fifth quarter was presented.
Giedrius Pūras, permanent advisor of the Twinning project in Ukraine, was pleased that despite the ongoing pandemic situation, the project continued to be active. Experts carried out intensive tasks, trainings and seminars remotely. Representatives of Polish and German regulators joined Lithuanian and Latvian experts in order to share as much experience of EU countries to Ukrainian colleagues as possible.
Alexander Zhyvotovsky, Chairman of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization (NCCIR) and the Ukrainian project leader, informed that on 12 January 2020 the President of Ukraine signed the Law on Electronic Communications of Ukraine, which is scheduled to enter into force on 1 January 2022. This law was drafted on the basis of the latest EU regulation – the European Electronic Communications Code and will provide a significant change in the regulatory framework for electronic communications in Ukraine. Therefore, during this year, the NCCIR faces important work in drafting legislation implementing the law. In addition, it was decided to define the aspects of the functioning of the regulatory authority (independence, rights and functions) in a separate Law on the Regulator, the draft of which is registered in the Parliament of Ukraine and is under intense debate.
Feliksas Dobrovolskis, Director of the Communications Regulatory Authority, leader of the Twinning project, stressed that the experts involved in the project are ready to advise colleagues on drafting secondary legislation required for the implementation of the new Ukrainian Electronic Communications Law and to assist with the analysis of the draft Regulatory Law.
The following main results were achieved during the reporting period:
The system of legal regulation of economic sanctions in Lithuania was presented to the National Regulatory Authority of Ukraine, experience in the supervision of economic entities was shared, also, recommendations were provided on which legislation needs to be drafted in order to improve the regulation and application of the of economic sanctions.
- Draft Guidelines for Ensuring the Rights of the End User in the Use of Electronic Communications Content Services were prepared.
- Lithuanian and Latvian experts conducted seminars for representatives of Ukrainian state institutions on the essential aspects of the independence of the communications regulator. The main topics of the seminars: the importance of regulatory independence, decision-making power and influence on electronic communications market participants, cooperation with consumer protection and competition authorities.
- A seminar was organized for Ukrainian e-communications market participants and institutional representatives, during which EU experience in the field of consumer information was shared. Key topics: informing consumers about service quality, the role of regulators and market participants in communicating with consumers and the use of information resource tools.
- Market impact assessment analysis was started by initiating market definition stage, preparing questionnaires and collecting baseline data, furthermore, operators with significant influence in Ukraine were analysed.
More about the project:
Since September 2019, the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) together with the Latvian Public Utilities Commission implements the European Union Twinning Project in Ukraine “Strengthening the Regulatory Capacity of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization in the Areas of Market Access and Quality of Service Monitoring System”. The aim of this project is to strengthen and improve the capacity of the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatization of Ukraine in the areas of quality supervision of electronic communications services, access to electronic communications networks and their interconnection.
Project value: 1.3 million euros.
Project duration: 2019 September – 2021 June
Project number: UA 18 ENI TE 01 19
The Twinning Program is an instrument of the European Union’s institutional cooperation between EU Member States and partner countries. The Twinning project is based on a direct exchange of knowledge and experience.
Updated on 2021-02-02