The Commission today decided to close infringement proceedings over independence of Belgian Institute for Postal services and Telecommunications (BIPT/IBPT), the national telecom regulatory authority in Belgium. This follows adoption and notification of a law amending the rules for the regulator's functioning.
The European Commission had decided to refer Belgium to the Court in October 2014 because decisions of the regulator could be suspended by the government, and its multi-annual strategy had to be approved by the Government as well.
The new Belgian law abrogating the contentious provisions was adopted in March 2015. On 7 April 2015, the law was published and notified to the European Commission. Considering that this amendment has removed the problems identified, the Commission today closes the infringement procedure.