PARLIAMENT ADOPTS LAW ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS

ZAGREB, July 17 (Hina) - After voting on more than 130 amendments, the Croatian parliament adopted a law on telecommunications in an emergency procedure on Thursday. The law will enable the liberalisation of the telecommunications market and the protection of telecommunications subscribers. #L# The law stipulates the establishment of a uniform body -- the Telecommunications Agency -- which will replace the current Telecommunications Council and the Telecommunications Bureau. Contrary to the former regulatory bodies, members of the Telecommunications Agency will perform their duties in a highly professional manner. They will be appointed and relieved of their duties by parliament. The government did not endorse amendments moved by several benches which requested that the liberalisation of the telecommunications market, namely the possibility of opening a land telephone network for the competition, be introduced by the beginning of next year. The Croatian Telecom monopoly over the land telephone network will thus be discontinued only in 2005, as stipulated by an agreement with Deutsche Telecom, the majority owner of Croatian Telecom. The new law will also enable the protection of telecommunications subscribers. Under the new law, telecommunications operators will be obliged to purchase equipment for telephone tapping at their own expense. They will also be obliged to make the records of taped calls available to intelligence services at any moment if requested. (hina) it sb