Slovakia faces EU lawsuit over broadband directive

The Transport Ministry is already working on changes; the new legislation should be valid from the beginning of 2018.

Slovakia, along with Belgium and Croatia, faces legal proceedings by the European Commission for failure to adopt the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive of 2014 on time. All member states of the EU were obliged to transpose the directive into their national legislations by the beginning of 2016.

“The EC has requested the EU Court to impose daily fines on the three countries until the directive is in force in their national legislation,” said Natália Podkonická from the EC representation office, as cited by the SITA newswire.

The new rules should widen access to broadband internet for people in the EU. The directive can reduce the cost of rolling out broadband networks by as much as 30 percent. One of its requirements is the reuse of existing physical infrastructure.

The three countries received warnings in March and September 2016.

The Slovak Transport Ministry claims that it has been working on implementing the new rules into Slovak legislation. It proposes that the related changes will be effective as of the beginning of 2018.

17. Jul 2017 at 21:34 | Compiled by Spectator staff