Spain

[ES] Final Approval of Law on Liberalisation of Telecommunications

IRIS 1997-8:1/18

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

In IRIS 1997-5: 12, we reported on the Spanish Real Decreto-Ley (Royal decree) 6/1996 on the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector. This Royal Decree was replaced on 24 April 1997 by Law 12/1997 concerning the liberalisation of telecommunications. The reason for the replacement of the Royal Decree by this new law is a formal one. A Royal Decree is a Statute adopted by the Government (which is only possible in the case where there is an extreme and urgent need) which directly has force of law but needs to be approved by the Parliament within 30 days of its adoption by the Government. Parliament can either approve the Royal Decree and leave the text intact, or regard the Royal Decree as a Bill which needs to go through the normal legislative procedures in order to become law. In the latter case, amendments are possible; this procedure was followed in this case. The new law, like the former Royal Decree, provides for a Telecommunication Market Commission (Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones) , an independent body with a wide competence in audio-visual matters as well as in the telecommunication sector. It also amends Law 31/1987 on the Regulation of the Telecommunications and to Law 42/1995 relating to Cable Communications (see IRIS 1996-10: 15 and IRIS 1997-5: 12).