European Commission Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert is still vainly trying to persuade the Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, to implement measures to create equal conditions in Italy’s digital cellular market. The Commissioner had originally ordered the Italian government to implement the changes in January 1996 to establish a fair market for Italy’s second cellular operator, Omnitel-Pronto Italia SpA. According to Reuter, Van Miert has now written to Prodi asking him to fix a precise date for the introduction of the changes, which were drawn up by the Commission in October 1995. The failure to adopt these measures has had serious consequences for the GSM sector, the letter said and added, I especially deplore the failure to apply two corrective measures.
