Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-024"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070523.3.3-024"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I would like to make a point of welcoming two former MEPs, Mr Wuermeling and Mrs Reding, who have returned to their former inferior abode, and thank them for their contribution to this proposal, which is bound to benefit the European consumer.
It may strike you as unusual that, whilst I, as a Liberal, am vehemently opposed to interference in consumer rates, certainly in the free market, where the Commission and Parliament claim that conditional competition leads to a better price and more innovation, I will be voting in favour of this in order that we may be able to do something about consumer prices.
You may well wonder why; I am doing this because the Commissioner – and I hope that this has dawned on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy – has spelled out that three years from now, we will boast a European market, rather than 27 individual markets scraped together within their own national borders, because that – as I see it – is where the problem lies and that is where telephone providers take advantage.
It is interesting to know that most consumers who pay high roaming rates and who do not get these reimbursed by their employers or via other schemes, are holidaymakers. They tend to phone each other up from one ski lift or deck chair to the next, and while they may be lounging in a Spanish deck chair five metres away from their friends, the call is directed to the home country before it comes back.
This has to stop. I think it is good that we should give the industry an incentive and that we can look forward to a properly functioning internal market for mobile phone calls in three years’ time, when we will be able to leave roaming behind, and consumers will be able to choose where they conclude their contracts.
There is something else I should like to share with you. I was surprised to hear that the rate is exclusive of VAT. Everyone talks about EUR 0.49 maximum. Since this is exclusive of VAT, the consumer is, in some sense, being offered a carrot, because this means that another 20% is added anyway.
I also hope that the basic contracts, not the calling per minute therefore, the basic contracts, for which no specific arrangements are in place, will not end up being misused, for we will have to intervene again if they are. I hope –Commissioner and Mr Wuermeling – that the system will work, and that we can ensure that the consumer is happy about Europe, but, above all, that the internal market will start to function properly."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples