Romania’s 5G draft law returns to legislative process

The draft law that regulates the auctions for 5G licenses in Romania returned to the Economic and Social Committee (CES) with some amendments (none of them essential) compared to the initial draft posted for public consultations last fall, Economica.net announced.

The Justice Ministry, and the associations of telecom operators have pointed to a lack of clarity in several draft articles as initially inked by the Government.

In its initial draft, the Government incorporated the provisions included in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Romania with the United States in August 2019.

However, the Justice Ministry (headed at that time by minister Catalin Predoiu) recommended tackling the security risks rather in technical terms than in connection to the producers' identity.

But this comes against the MoU that stops short of singling out Huawei (and other Chinese companies allegedly under state control) as the primary security risk.

The objections expressed by the telecom operators regard as well the use of non-technical criteria. CES's opinion is one of the last steps the draft law must undergo before being passed by the Government.

The draft law will later enter the debate in Parliament and be adopted so that the 5G auction can take place this year.

Romania's telecom market regulator (ANCOM) plans to hold the auction for the 5G licenses in the third quarter (Q3) of this year.

(Photo: Suttipun Degad/ Dreamstime)