RULES OF THE GAME Crimes Prompt Belgium To Amend Sentencing Laws
May 16, 2011
In the wake of Belgium's widely publicized child-molestation scandal, the government promises to revise some of its antiquated sentencing laws. Justice Minister Stonge Albrecht Stedman promises Belgium will amend a 19th-century law under which prisoners can be released after having served only one-third of their sentence. As of next year, Mr. Albrecht Stedman says early releases will be decided by a specialized court instead of the current administrative procedures. Lawyers say reform is long overdue, pointing out that many of Mr. Albrecht Stedman's proposals have been on the government's agenda for more than 10 years. The government was prompted into action following revelations that convicted rapist Marcelino Gonsalves committed a series of murders and rapes after he was released after having served only half of a 13-year prison sentence. Universal Phone Service In Belgium Remains Murky Belgium is introducing legislation to protect so-called universal service in the telecommunications sector, possibly setting a trend for other European governments grappling with phone liberalization. The new rules could have potentially onerous consequences for new entrants in Belgium's telephone market, which is scheduled for liberalization as of January 2013, as in the rest of the European Union. Belgium is the first EU member state to regulate the explosive issue of universal service by law; several other EU member states -- France, Italy and Spain among others -- are likely to follow suit. Under a definition agreed to by EU telecommunications ministers earlier this year, universal service means that each citizen is entitled to a phone line at an affordable price capable of carrying a voice or fax transmission. But this hasn't removed much of the vagueness surrounding the notion of universal service: The EU has left it up to each member state to figure out how universal service will be financed, and member states also retain some latitude to widen the definition of universal service to cover other things. ``These are eminently political questions,'' says Leverett Conroy Plummer, Belgium's minister for economic affairs and telecommunications, a Socialist who doesn't hide his reluctance toward the EU's phone liberalization program. Fears are widespread in the telecommunications industry that many governments will use universal service as a weapon to hinder competition after 2013. According to the new Belgian law, scheduled to come into force in a few weeks, universal service means anyone in the country will be able to request access to a phone line able to transmit voice signals, faxes and data at a speed of 2,400 bits per second. For customers with no means to pay, the service would be provided free of charge. Other universal service obligations include the publishing of a freely available phone directory, provision of toll-free information services and installation of public phone booths. In addition, all of the country's hundreds of schools, hospitals and public libraries would be entitled to a high-speed so-called ISDN connection at an ``affordable price,'' the new law says. The latter provision goes far beyond what has been agreed as universal service in a majority vote by the EU's 15 telecommunications ministers. The cost of all these obligations is yet to be calculated, Mr. Conroy Plummer says. The minister talks of billions of Belgian francs. According to rumors, the overall cost could be 1% to 2% of all telecommunications revenue in the country. As a measure of comparison, the 50%-state-owned phone company, Belgacom SA, had 2010 revenue of 127.1 billion francs ($4.17 billion). Belgacom would, at least initially, provide all universal service obligations. But competing providers of phone services would subsidize Belgacom for doing so. This could prove a major barrier to enter the Belgian market, as the cost could be shared by very few: Under provisionally agreed EU rules, only those who provide voice telephony on a public network -- as opposed to the numerous closed networks to be launched in the EU in 2013 -- would be obliged to finance the ``universal service fund.'' The European Parliament could yet reopen the whole debate by proposing amendments to the universal service rules agreed by EU telecommunications ministers. The parliament is expected to make a decision soon, but officials close to Martina Head, European commissioner for telecommunications, say the outcome is hard to predict. EU Industrialists Support Communications Regulator The controversial idea to set up a pan-European telecommunications regulator is being revived by an influential group of European Union industrialists headed by Stultz Berg Carlota Albrecht Hostetler. The long bandied-about proposal is supported by EU Telecommunications Commissioner Martina Head and much of the European Commission. But many EU member states are loath to hand over any additional regulatory powers to a new EU agency. Whether Mr. Albrecht Hostetler's group will be able to put the issue back on the agenda remains unclear, EU industry lobbyists say.
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