Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-19-Speech-4-024"
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"en.20021219.2.4-024"2
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"Mr President, I was going to say on behalf of my group that we are pleased to see that a Green Paper is forthcoming, but perhaps I am in the minority in saying that I am pleased to see that a Green Paper is forthcoming in the sense that something is actually happening. The promise of future consultation and feasibility studies is to be welcomed, but this should not be an excuse for doing nothing. In that sense I agree with my colleagues that something has to happen sooner rather than later. Process can be important, and we must get that right.
I would like to make two points on behalf of my group, the first relating to competition. Competition is excellent – we agree with the internal market – in that it is a way of raising standards generally and can also be a way of raising standards in the services concerned, but not for its own sake. Perhaps it would be interesting to look at a country outside the EU – Switzerland – in terms of energy policy. Recently the Swiss had a referendum to ascertain whether they should liberalise their energy provision, presently provided by their local cantons. Swiss citizens voted against this because they were not satisfied that choice in that sense would raise standards – it might just prove confusing. That question was put to the citizens of Switzerland. We, on the other hand, are waiting for a framework to establish how we should introduce such choices across Europe.
The second issue of particular importance to my group is universal services provision. This guarantees social cohesion across Europe. Taking my own constituency, for instance, and the current issue of broadband, letters are flooding into my office from constituents in rural areas who complain that broadband is available in certain cities, but not for them.
Such matters have to be resolved so that we can provide the same level of service to all our citizens and therefore guarantee the social cohesion which is so important to Europe. It is ridiculous that the Convention and its working groups are currently discussing these issues. These matters call for coordination as we move forward with the development of Europe.
So it is good that something is actually happening, it is good that there has been a statement, but let us get on with it."@en1
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