05. 06. 2013

DEGERT DISSATISFIED WITH DELAY OF DIGITALIZATION

Belgrade, June 5, 2013 (Danas, B92) - Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia Vincent Degert criticized Minister Rasim Ljajic in a letter for the belatedness of the process of digitalization of television in Serbia.

Several millions of Euros have been secured for this process through IPA funds. As this daily has found out unofficially, the process has been additionally slowed down with calling the competition for allocation of former TV Avala. It is not excluded that the equipment worth eight million Euros, acquired with pre-accession funds, will be withdrawn from Serbia.

In the Ministry of Foreign and Internal Trade and Telecommunications claim that they have indeed received the letter from Mr. Degert, however, in the EU Delegation to Serbia no one wanted to comment on this information.

The State Secretary for Telecommunications Stefan Lazarevic told the daily that the upcoming period would see the Ministry responding to the letter of the EU Delegation, adding that it was true that the process of digitalization would have ended much faster had the frequency of TV Avala remained free.

"The Ministry of Culture informed us of the obligation of the RBA to call the competition for the unused frequency, of which we had notified RATEL", Lazarevic said, adding that they were in no position to call the competition or to withdraw the call.

"More has been done in the digitalization process in the last year than in the last four", Lazarevic points out.

Under the agreement that Serbia signed with the European Commission, the pre-accession funds have provided assistance of around eight million Euros worth of equipment, which is used by the Public Company ETV. The equipment has been financed from IPA funds and includes IP and video equipment, transmitters, measuring vehicle and equipment, microwave links and temporary antenna systems of renowned manufacturers. According to the findings of the daily Danas, the EU Delegation has regularly monitored the process of digitalization so far.