Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-009"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070523.3.3-009"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner Reding, rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, ladies and gentlemen. Today, Parliament and the Council can be proud that we took seriously the Commission’s request for us to produce the Regulation on roaming by the end of summer. We all went into the talks assuming that this would go through the normal procedure with a second and third reading, given the extremely conflictual subject matter and the great disparity between the conflicting interests on the European market.
We had developed healthy competition on the national markets; but competition between the various Member States did not really exist. Now, millions of consumers are looking at their mobile phones – mobiles, as we call them – and waiting for the first offer to arrive, an offer that depends on when this Regulation is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Then we will hopefully be able to make calls on holiday or business trips, safe in the knowledge that the end of the month will not see a bill higher than the cost of the room or flight, but one within reasonable bounds. Roaming has to be like going into a restaurant and being handed a menu with the prices on. In future, when customers cross the border into a European country, they will receive a text message displaying their personalised tariff and a freephone mobile number on which they can call their home provider and ask the cost of a text message, MMS or data transfer. This transparency alone will achieve a great deal, and I am proud that it can be introduced for all services, not only voice telephony.
We have also mentioned the flat rate, of course – an all-inclusive flat rate that can be offered within a certain period, whereby customers know at the end of the month exactly what they will have to pay. This is the challenge, namely in comparison with land lines, broadband, Voice over IP and many other new technologies. This Regulation opens up a considerable market opportunity for UMTS and GSM, including in the future. It has been a pleasure for me, therefore, to hold intensive discussions with Mr Paasilinna on such customer-friendliness issues in the field of roaming. Our first discussion with Mr Muscat is still fresh in my memory, when we asked whether there would be an ‘opt-in’ or an ‘opt-out’ solution. We agreed that there did have to be a solution. That was the crux of the matter – that we realised: there is a real need for action, it has to happen quickly, it has to be efficient, and then we can stage it accordingly.
We worked on the outermost regions very intensively with Mr Mavrommatis. I hail from the Alpine country of Austria – where transmitter costs are different from those in lowland countries. In the next few months, the Commission will be examining in detail the future possibilities in this regard. This Regulation is also of interest to regulators, since for Member States’ regulators, too, it opens up brand new possibilities for active involvement in the field of roaming and for seeking out what is ideal for consumers.
Also new is the approach of better lawmaking. We have managed, at long last, to draw up a Regulation that automatically expires after three years, and we would ask the Commission to ensure that competition is really under way after these three years. I would also ask the Council and its representatives to press for the Regulation to be published in the Official Journal as soon as possible, as millions of European consumers are waiting to finally see a Regulation on this from which they, too, can benefit. I should like to express my particular thanks to this House. Our services did an excellent job: four days after the agreement with Coreper, all translations were present. This was excellent work in this House, and I am proud of the staff who made it possible for us to work so efficiently."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples