Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-12-Speech-2-321"
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"en.20010612.16.2-321"2
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". – Madam President, it gives me great pleasure tonight to be able to present my report on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market to the House on universal services and users rights relating to electronic communications. This is a further element in what is a most crucial package of legislation that is now being considered by Parliament to create a single regulatory framework for electronic communications. It is so important for the future of the European economy as a whole that we get this package right. It has been a privilege for me to have been able to work for the first time in my parliamentary career here on a major codecision text like this.
This is a complex text and the procedure for review has also been complex. I would like particularly to thank the rapporteurs of the three committees who provided me with opinions, Mr Papayannakis, Mr Aparicio Sánchez and particularly Mr Caudron, where we worked together under the Hughes procedure and where the amendments that were passed by the Committee on Industry were received by my committee. We did not vote on any of them, they were accepted by us in our report.
I would also like to thank the shadow rapporteurs from the various committees I worked with for providing me with so much support. Indeed, the final text before us has been the result of a lot of work by many people. I am not proposing to accept any further amendments to the text, even though a number have come in rather late in the day from the Socialist Group. I believe we have reached a good agreement on the text and I am not proposing to support any additional amendments in the vote tomorrow.
I should like to say a few things about the text itself. It is a very comprehensive text because it contains four distinct measures. There are the provisions relating to universal service itself, how it should be delivered, how it should be funded in an open and transparent way that does not distort the market place and a whole series of measures on users' rights, including some important new measures reflecting the new technology which is coming our way. It has a number of crucial measures related to market intervention and the ability of Member States to intervene very directly in the market place, and to set retail pricing for example. Finally, it also has some measures related to digital television, particularly a package of obligations related to "must carry" provisions for public service broadcasts.
I do not have time this evening to go through all of those in detail but I would like to observe that I have specifically asked the Commission in the text that we will receive at second reading to mark out more clearly those four aspects of the text. At the moment it is quite complex, particularly the market intervention measures which are regarded as transitory measures by the Commission, a view that I share. They are there for the time in which the market is still being directly regulated, but this whole package envisages a time when the entire market will operate under normal competition aspects. Those transitory measures should be clearly identified because hopefully we will not need them in a few years' time.
My approach in considering this text has been to give strong support to the strategy behind the directive. The Commission has not sought to enhance significantly the scope of the universal service remit and that is absolutely right. In my work I have sought to clarify the text, to improve it in some aspects, but to be very selective about new provisions. In the area of users' rights it has been important to strike the right balance between a text that will be agreed centrally at European Union level and detailed work that should be done in the Member States.
Believe me, colleagues, I have had no shortage of people wanting to complicate this text, wanting to add extra provisions. I believe I have the balance right, particularly in the light of the fact that these provisions will apply to the applicant countries, where the technological base from which they start will be much lower than that envisaged at the moment. I am confident that the proposals I put before you tonight are balanced and will stand the test of time. They anticipate technical development. They will be good for consumers because they sustain and develop competition. They provide essential rights for consumers but they will allow a sector that is changing very fast to thrive and develop in the future without unnecessary and complex interference."@en1
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