The Bulgarian Government announced telecommunications, together with transport and power engineering as priority sectors in the Bulgarian economy. Telecommunications are part of the Government's strategy on the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria to the European Union and a mile-stone for the implementation of the course towards integration into the European and global structures.

In its Programme the Government announced: "Ensuring modern and efficient high quality telecommunications services is a significant element of the overall development of the country. Following the general European and worldwide trends in order to achieve this goal, telecommunications policy will be mainly oriented towards an accelereted adaptation to the conditions of a free and competitive market. This will be done through accelerated reform in telecommunications sector, promoting infrastructure and services development, relating to a transition to genuine market conditions, through ensured equal access for any user at economically grounded and affordable prices."

At present the legislative regulation of telecommunications is provided for in the Communications Act adopted in 1975. Its stipulations for complete state monopoly and concentration of supervisory and business functions into a single body make this Act incompatible both with the adopted telecommunications policy and with the current economic conditions. The lack of a new Telecommunications Act, adequate to the realities on the one hand is a definite impediment both to the liberalization and competition in the telecommunications sector, to the influx of foreign investment and the privatization of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, and on the other hand would incite unregulated activities. All this indicates that adoption of a new Telecommunications Law in shortest time is of vital importance to the development of the sector.

In 1997 a new draft of a Telecommunications Law was elaborated. Its stipulations to a great degree are compatible with the main provisions of the European legislation. They are directed at full liberalization of all telecommunications services and there is a time-limit for the exclusive rights of the main telecommunications operator over the infrastructure and voice telephony via the fixed network until the end of 2002. This draft has been consulted with EU representatives and was positively commented by them.

Our objective is to establish an appropriate environment for fair competition that will accelerate telecommunications development by means of a stable, predictable, clear and objective policy and regulatory framework according to the requirements in the Directives of the European Union.

The draft of the Telecommunications Act which meets in general the requirements for harmonization with the European legislation however contains some provisions which are in antinomy to the operative National legislation and legislative practice.

We decided to hold this seminar, which is dedicated to the legislative framework in telecommunications, being fully aware that standing results in the process of implementing the Government objectives will be only possible through wide debate on the issues that will guarantee the required transparency of decisions and activities of the Government bodies.

The seminar will be attended by members of the Council of Ministers, presidents of committees, heads of Government entities, MPs, CEOs and personalities with significant public influence.

By extending to you this invitation to participate in the seminar we hope to be able with your assistance to focus the attention and provoke discussions on the main legislative issues in telecommunications. The outcome of these discussions will be expected to possibly lead to the common awareness that the legislative basis should be built up in such a way that not only to meet the present conditions but also to create stability for a longer period of time.