Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-13-Speech-2-310"
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"en.20070213.21.2-310"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, Mrs Hall, ladies and gentlemen, we are being asked to express an opinion on the reallocation of radio frequencies.
This is a very important dossier and the Commission’s reasons for wanting a proposal that seeks to optimise or maximise the benefits of this resource of course stem from changing technologies, the existence of the digital dividend and the desire, clearly expressed in the Lisbon objectives, to give everyone access to new services, be it the Internet, mobile telephony or many others besides.
We have just spoken of broadband in particular, which could help to reduce the digital divide from which the European Union suffers, especially in rural and thinly populated areas. We must therefore seek to ensure a rational use of frequencies that will guarantee universal coverage in the 27 countries of the Union with a view to sustainable development of all areas.
Frequencies are in fact a resource, a public good, common to us all and strategic for the Union, and we must ensure that the spectrum is used efficiently in the long term. Just as we speak of energy efficiency, I believe we can also speak of radio spectrum efficiency.
I would like to welcome the Commission’s attempts to give a new European dimension to the use of this digital dividend and avoid a repetition of the very real problem we had, and which the companies concerned saw as such, when the UMTS networks were put up for sale. It proposes the creation of a market. We have to be able to find a way of providing greater flexibility, avoiding speculation and monopolies and making frequencies accessible to new services and new entrants.
I believe it is right to want to do so. We must find new opportunities for innovation there, but we must be careful how they are marketed, whether it be by licences, auctions or assignments, in particular of public or free-access services, even if on a temporary basis. These different approaches remain to be defined.
In our committee we had a debate on the place of broadcasters and I would like to say here most emphatically that for my part I have always defended the special nature of the information programmes, the cultural programmes provided by broadcasters, especially public broadcasters, who do not have the private capital necessary to pay for access to the market on the same terms as, let us say, ordinary companies.
Therefore, if we are to take account of this situation while being fair and impartial, that is why the Socialist Group has tabled an amendment seeking to take account of radio spectrum efficiency, the balance between respect for public broadcasts and respect for State broadcasts on safety, also the role of regulators and the role of business."@en1
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