Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM) is the national regulatory authority (NRA) in Portugal for communications, for the purposes of the law of the European Union (EU) and national legislation; it also inherits the assignments, powers and responsibilities of the Comissão de Planeamento de Emergência das Comunicações (Emergency Communications Planning Committee). ANACOM is a legal person governed by public law, construed as an independent administrative entity with administrative, financial and managerial autonomy and its own assets. ANACOM is organisationally, operationally and technically independent in the performance of its functions and is not subject to government direction or supervision in the exercise thereof, as established in its Statutes - Decree-Law no. 39/2015 of 16 March - in force since 1 April 2015. This does not, however, stand in the way of ANACOM providing assistance to the Government in the area of communications and is without prejudice to the development of guidelines by the Government where ANACOM acts in representation of the Portuguese State or to the requirement for prior approval of acts provided for in these statutes.