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EEC proposals on harmonizing legislation in sphere of natural monopolies discussed in Yerevan
The Eurasian Economic Commission presented in Yerevan a package of proposals for making amendments and additions to the list of regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Armenia in the sphere of natural monopolies. The proposals were drafted as part of the measures to harmonize the Union countries' legislation envisaged in the road map in the sphere of natural monopolies.
"Solving the common task of approximating national legislations will enable consumers of natural monopoly services, regardless of their country of origin, to understand the common approaches to regulation in the Union. Besides, this will generally contribute to improving the “business climate,” noted Hayk Tutunjyan, Deputy Director of the EEC Transport and Infrastructure Department.
The Commission's representatives held several working meetings, including with representatives and officials of the Commission for Regulating Public Services, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, and the Commission for Competition Protection. The meetings discussed the content and deadlines for preparing the relevant draft list, as well as noted the need to disclose the competences of the public authorities of the Republic of Armenia to analyze the service markets for their inclusion or exclusion from the sphere of natural monopolies. The complexity of disclosing and conducting analytical work on the regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Armenia due to their absence in the working Russian language of the Union was touched upon as well.
For reference
Paragraph 10 of the Action Plan (roadmap) for sequencing the implementation of relevant measures to harmonize the legislation of the Union Member States in the sphere of natural monopolies approved by Disposition No. 37 of the Commission's Council dated December 20, 2017, envisages drafting a list of regulatory legal acts of the Union Member States in sphere of natural monopolies subject to approximation. The document will be submitted to the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in late 2023.
The absence of the "natural monopolies" concept is a feature of the national legislation of the Republic of Armenia. Instead, there is the concept of "public services". According to the Agreement on the Accession of the Republic of Armenia to the Treaty on the EAEU, only those public services that are included in Annexes No. 1 and 2 to the Protocol on Common Principles and Rules for Regulating Activities of Natural Monopoly Entities are equated to the natural monopoly services in Armenia (Annex No. 20 to the Treaty on the EAEU).
