Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-17-Speech-3-271"
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"en.20000517.12.3-271"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Liikanen
Paasilinna, I am delighted to be discussing the important issue of the pleasure of auctions versus the frustration of taxation. It is a pleasure to achieve high returns but frustrating when one knows that the sale proceeds in fact represent a voluntary form of early taxation. I believe we should learn from the auctions in Great Britain in this respect. The people who applied for these licences actually missed a nought off in their calculations. They had to pay over ten times the anticipated amount for the licences. I believe that will have a distorting effect on competition in the long run, because other companies that only have to face a ‘beauty contest’ can now pursue a considerably more aggressive price policy of course, and will ultimately be able to take over illiquid telecommunications firms. We therefore need to examine the opportunities and risks associated with the various forms of allocation without delay.
I believe it is for the Commission to perform the important task of analysing the auction results and the effects thereof, and make a real point of asking those who buy licences at auction whether they are aware of the risks that the legislature still has on the table. It is not known how the legislature will support the universal service in the future. Our Group is in fact against this for the mobile phone sector. All the same, it is not known what is in the pipeline, for example, in connection with number portability or data protection. I could list a whole host of things that the legislature could still come up with and that would present a considerable risk to auctions. I feel that one should, of course, consider stock market prices as well. If a company in Spain takes part in a ‘beauty contest’ without serious intent, and pays very little for a licence, then of course this company’s shares will rise accordingly on the stock exchange. This means increased liquidity and market imbalances. Companies that pay dearly for licences, on the other hand, and do not have this opportunity, may very quickly go into a tailspin on the stock exchange. Therefore, if auctions are here to stay, we must call for a regulatory framework to be put in place. One idea would be to earmark the revenue from these auctions for boosting investment in education and training. One could promote research and development investment, concentrating on start-up companies, or small and family businesses, particularly those involved in the development of telecommunications, Internet and multimedia programmes. Finally, we could, of course, promote the infrastructure needed to bring on competitive cabling, networks and hardware development too. Just transferring the proceeds to the national budgets, however, does not seem to me to be enough!"@en1
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