The adoption of the draft law on the National Comission for the State Regulation of Communication and Informatiozation (NCCIR) along with the draft law on electronic communications will allow launching a comprehensive reform of the telecommunications sector in Ukraine. The approaches of both draft laws are based on the European Code of Electronic Communications.
IT&Telecom sector experts of BRDO have prepared a draft law designed to determine the organizational and legal status and operating principles of the NCCIR as a communications regulator.
The need to change the legislation on the communications regulator is driven to the necessity to:
- ensure the constitutional and legal status of the NCCIR;
- comply with the requirements of the Association Agreement with the EU, including ensuring the organizational and financial independence of the telecom regulator (based on the approaches of the European Code of Electronic Communications – the EU Directive 2018/1972).
Key changes proposed:
- Legal status. The regulator is becoming the executive authority. The members of the Regulator will be appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, not by the President.
- Independence:
- open competition when appointing members of the Regulator;
- election of the Chairman of the Regulator by other members;
- exclusively transparently motivated dismissal of members of the Regulator (political independence);
- competitive remuneration (both for members of the Regulator and for the staff);
- directly identified sources of funding (financial independence);
- elimination of the need to coordinate the decisions of the Regulator with other bodies (independent decision-making)
- Interaction with the EU. Provisions regarding the interaction of BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications).
Together with the draft law “On Electronic Communications” No.3014 developed with the participation of BRDO experts and registered in the Parliament on February 5, 2020, the draft law on the NCCIR will launch a comprehensive reform of the telecommunications sector aimed at:
- establishing new rules of the game that promote market development and new technologies;
- regulating the status and rules of operation of an independent regulator designed to monitor compliance with the new rules of the game and create the necessary environment for this.
The creation of the NCCIR together with the adoption of the draft law “On Electronic Communications” will lay the foundations for Ukraine’s integration into the EU digital single market.
It will also remove the possible risk of declaring the current status of the NCCIR unconstitutional. According to the Constitution, the President does not have the authority to establish independent regulatory bodies such as the NCCIR, as evidenced by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of June 14, 2019, on the unconstitutionality of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities (NCREP). Therefore, such a body should have the status of a central executive body with a special status and guarantees of independence in funding and subordination.
The Head of BRDO’s IT&Telecom sector Ihor Samokhodskyi recommends the adoption of the draft law on the NCCIR together with the draft law No.3014 for comprehensive regulation of the telecom sector.
“The legal status, independence, and capacity of the regulator are central issues for the telecommunications sector under the Association Agreement. However, this is just as important for the entire Ukrainian market. Even the most progressive rules will not work without independent and effective control, and it should be ensured by a strong regulator. Therefore, we recommend the adoption of the draft law on the NCCIR together with the draft law No.3014”.
The draft law together with the accompanying documents was sent to the Parliament Committee on Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The full text of the draft law along with the comparative table can be found here (in Ukrainian).
This material is prepared by the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), an independent expert and analytical center funded by the European Union under the FORBIZ project and within the framework of EU4Business Initiative.