4. Articulation of the general consultation procedure with other consultation procedures

The general consultation procedure may be held simultaneously with the above-mentioned consultation procedures, namely with the previous hearing procedure of the interested parties.

Thus, whenever a draft measure is subject to both procedures, the parties deemed interested for purposes of previous hearing shall be notified in accordance with CPA, complying with all the formalities contained therein.

The draft measure submitted to the general consultation procedure and simultaneously to the previous hearing of the interested parties is of course disclosed in the website of ANACOM.

In these cases, the regulator may match the deadline of the previous hearing with the deadline of the general consultation procedure, although it is not compulsory that it occurs.

Moreover, the regulatory procedure can coincide with the general consultation procedure, all the rules associated to it being as well complied with.  In this case, there is also an advantage to match the deadlines.

The general consultation procedure is different from the requests for na opinion to several entities, as it is the case of the Competition Authority, the Institute for the Consumer or sector regulators, foreseen in the Electronic Communications Law in typified cases.

The general consultation procedure should not be mistaken with the specific consultation procedure established in article 57 of the Electronic Communications Law, which transposes article 7 of Directive 2002/21/EC. When the latter must take place, it is added to the first one and has as addressees the European Commission and the national regulatory authorities of the other Member States.

Notices, deadlines and consultations foreseen in the above-mentioned article 7 were considered in Recommendation 2003/561/EC of the Commission, of 23 July 2003 and are not included in the scope of this document.

Regardless of the realization of the consultation procedures, ANACOM may, before adopting any decision, promote discussions about the matter in question with entities that may be affected by the measure or with entities that represent its interests.