Presidência do Conselho de Ministros (Presidency of the Council of Ministers)
Resolution of the Council of Ministers
Law No. 29/2002, of 6 December, removed the basic telecommunications network, through which the provision of the universal telecommunications service is ensured, from the State’s public domain.
On 27 December 2002, the State and PT Comunicações, S.A., concluded a contract for the purchase and sale of the basic telecommunications network and of the telex network (Contract), the minute of which was approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 147/2002, of 26 December.
The subject-matter of this Contract was defined by reference to the universal nature of telecommunication infrastructures that integrate the referred basic network, under Law No. 91/97, of 1 August, as amended by Law No. 29/2002, of 6 December (Basic Telecommunications Law), having been laid down in clause 2 to the Contract that the infrastructures of the basic network sold to PT Comunicações, S.A. would be identified in annex II to that contract.
The State thus sold in full to PT Comunicações, S.A. the acquis that integrated the basic telecommunications network at the moment the Contract was concluded, having the price of purchase of the network reflected this issue.
In the scope of negotiations of the agreement to revoke to concession contract of the public telecommunications service, the terms of which were approved by Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 66-A/2013, of 18 October, PT Comunicações, S.A. found that, by material mistake, the assets of the basic telecommunications network attributed, at the time of the network’s purchase, to the sub-concession assigned by PT Comunicações, S.A. to Companhia Portuguesa Rádio Marconi, failed to have been included in the referred annex II to the Contract, which identifies the infrastructures to be sold. The referred mistake was due to the fact that the assets of the basic telecommunications network had always been reported separately in an annex to the inventory of assets attributed to the concession of the public telecommunications service, which was submitted every year to ICP - Autoridade Nacional das Comunicações (ICP - ANACOM), document on which the drafting of annex II to the Contract was based.
This same annex failed to include, also by mistake, a certain number of assets which belonged to the basic network which were registered by PT Comunicações, S.A. in its assets accounts between 1 and 27 December 2002.
ICP - ANACOM confirmed, in an analysis carried out at the request of the State, and on the basis of the ownership classification code included in the inventory of PT Comunicações, S.A., that these goods, listed in the asset inventory attributed to the concession and not included in annex II to the contract, correspond to equipment or infrastructures of the subscriber’s fixed access system, of the transmission network, of concentration nodes, of the switching system, and/or processing of a communications network, that is, elements that under article 12 of the Basic Telecommunications Law, in force on the date the Contract was concluded, integrated the basic telecommunications network.
The referred mistake thus needs to be put right, and for this purpose annex II to the Contract must include the goods attributed to the sub-concession assigned by PT Comunicações, S.A. to Companhia Portuguesa Rádio Marconi on the date of the sale as well as goods comprised in the basic network which were registered by PT Comunicações, S.A. in its assets accounts between 1 and 27 December 2002.
This amendment takes the form of the addition of annex II-A and annex II-B to the Contract, which respectively list the goods attributed to the sub-concession assigned by PT Comunicações, S.A. to Companhia Portuguesa Rádio Marconi on the date of the sale and the goods comprised in the basic network which were registered by PT Comunicações, S.A. in its assets accounts between 1 and 27 December 2002.
Therefore:
Under point g) of article 199 of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers hereby decides:
1 - To approve the draft agreement amending the contract for the purchase and sale of the basic telecommunications network and of the telex network, concluded between the Portuguese State and PT Comunicações, on 27 December 2002.
2 - To delegate on the Minister of State and of Finance and on the Minister of Economy the powers to grant the draft agreement referred to in the preceding paragraph, with the possibility to sub-delegate such powers, respectively, on the Secretary of State of the Treasury and on the Secretary of State of Infrastructures, Transport and Communications.
3 - To determine that this resolution takes effect on the day following that of its publication.
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, 14 November 2013 - The Prime-Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho
