The European Commission said on Wednesday it opened infringement proceeding against Bulgaria over its telecommunications regulator lacking independence and effectiveness.

The news comes on the heels of the bloc's executive recent announcements that it plans to set up a single European telecom market and strengthen competition in the sector.

"As the Commission has identified serious violations of the EU legal provisions in this respect in Bulgaria, it launched today infringement proceedings against Bulgaria," the EC said in a statement.

The long list of shortcomings include the yearlong delay in the appointment of a new chairman of the Telecoms Regulation Commission, an incomplete board and lack of funding, which have all contrived to prevent the regulator from carrying out is core tasks.

"Neither meetings with the Bulgarian authorities nor several letters from the Commission have resolved these problems," the Commission said.

Bulgaria thus becomes the third EU member state against which the bloc's executive has launched infringement proceedings for lack of independence of the national telecoms regulator, joining Poland and Slovakia.

The regulator answered with its own statement, saying that it had no powers to change the problems outlined by the EC, which need to be solved by other institutions, in this case the cabinet and the parliament.

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