Early this afternoon, the Committee on Infrastructure of the Belgian Federal House of Representatives voted on the draft “Projet de loi relatif aux communications électroniques” / “Wetsontwerp betreffende de elektronische communicatie”.
This is the Bill to transpose the package of EU directives on electronic communications into Belgian law.
The Committee unanimously approved the draft text, i.e. not only the majority parties, but also the opposition parties voted in favour of the amended text and voted in favour of the amended annex on Universal Service. There were no abstentions.
A consolidated approved text will become available shortly, and we will update this news item on the T-REGS website to link to it.
The plenary of the Federal House of Representatives will examine the Bill on 14 or 21 April 2005, and subsequently the Federal Senate will also examine (at least certain aspects of ) the Bill.
T-REGS Note: On 10 March 2005, Belgium was condemned by the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the directives within the deadline which was 24 July 2003. The full text of the (very short) judgement (in French) can be accessed by clicking here.
For a detailed discussion, please contact Yves Blondeel. For background information, please refer to a previous T-REGS news item.