Domestic studies of ACTA

Roel Bollens — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:07:14 +0000

Språk Svenska

Some EU member states, such as Germany, said that they don’t want to make any decision on ACTA, pushing the political pressure towards the European Parliament, awaiting their approval.

The Belgian and Croatian government are taking a whole different stance, conducting their own impact study and holding a public debate.

Belgian minister Vande Lanotte said the following: “Only when the impact study is ready and the parliament has studied the content, can a debate about the controversial ACTA agreement take place. For the legislation in Belgium as well as on a European level”

The Croatian government stated it welcomes a public debate for all interested citizens.

Croatian Parliament reintroduces tax on mobile services

Roel Bollens — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:25:19 +0000

Språk Svenska

The Croatian Parliament signed a law (Narodne Novine Br. 12/12 ^[Croatian]) on 20 January 2012, that went into effect on 26 January 2012. This act reintroduces the 6% tax ^[Croatian] on mobile network services due to the ongoing troubling financial situation in Croatia. Much to the dismay of the three mobile operators in Croatia: T-Hrvatski (Majority-owned by Deutsche Telecom), Vipnet (Owned by Mobilkom Austria) and Tele2 Croatia (Sweden’s Tele2 subsidiary) .This charge is expected to raise HRK 300 million annually ^[Croatian] (Approx. EUR 39,5 million) according to Radimir Čačić, one of Croatia’s Deputy Prime Ministers.

The previous tax (Narodne Novine Br. 94/09 ^[Croatian]) was introduced on August 2009 to counter recession and was in effect on 1 January 2010 and abolished on 1 January 2012 (decided by the previous Croatian Parliament on October 2011).

Against EU Legislation
The current tax will remain in effect until Croatia accedes the European Union, whose entry into the EU as 28th member is currently set for 1 July 2013. The reason for this is because the European Commission argues that this tax is against EU legislation (the draft of this act originally stated 30 June 2013). More specifically, it goes against EU telecoms rules of the Authorisation Directive, Article 12.

blogg för Roel Bollens

Domestic studies of ACTA

Croatian Parliament reintroduces tax on mobile services