National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology of the Republic of Moldova

On February 19 – 24, a group of specialists of the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Information Technology (ANRCETI), at the invitation of Estonian colleagues, made a study visit to Tallinn, within the framework of the Estonian Development Cooperation project, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. The other participants from the Republic of Moldova, involved in this project, are the specialists of the Competition Council and National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE).

During their visit to Tallinn, ANRCETI specialists studied how the EU competition protection legislation is enforced on electronic communications network/service markets, the development and implementation of the regulatory framework, the coordination between regulatory activities and competition protection on communications markets.

The representatives of Moldova had a number of meetings and discussions with the officials of the Competition Authority (part of which is a department in charge of electronic communications regulation), Consumer Protection Agency, Tallinn Law School, telecom company „Elion” and IT company „Real System”. They studied the regulatory practices used by the Estonian regulator, the ways of monitoring the fulfillment of the obligations imposed on providers with significant market power and dispute resolution between providers. 

They also studied the experience of their Estonian colleagues in terms of development and application of recommendatory documents (guidelines, codes of conduct), involvement of law firms in making legal expertise of draft documents and representing the Competition Authority in court proceedings on dispute resolution between the authority and electronic communications providers.  

The Estonian Development Cooperation project „Enhancing the protection of free market competition in Moldova through education development and good governance” was launched in September 2012 and will last until August 2013. The purpose of the project is to study the experience of Estonia regarding harmonization of the national legislation with EU standards, application of competition protection tools, combination of regulatory and competition protection tools on the markets of Moldova.

According to the program of the project, a group of specialists from the Estonian Competition Authority and Tallinn Law School of the University of Technology will come to Chisinau on a visit in April. They will be hosted by ANRCETI, ANRE and Competition Council.

March 7, 2013