Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-062"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070523.3.3-062"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, honourable Members – who have given me such a warm welcome – I know from past experience that your House keeps to a strict timetable, but I would nevertheless like to say something about one or two of the points that have featured in today’s debate, and I wish to do so not least as an indication of the culture of dialogue that the German Presidency wishes to encourage.
Although many Members of your House – Mr Alvaro, Mr Reul, and Mr Farage, among others – have taken a critical view of the intervention in the market, I should like to remind you that we are all agreed on the market’s need for rules, and for competition to be fair, which it simply was not in the realm of roaming charges, since consumers had no choice between the various services on offer. That was why competition was not fair; that was why it was necessary to do something about it. The single market gains credibility in the eyes of the public only if the European Union ensures that they are not put at a disadvantage within it.
Some people have been given the impression that those who are in favour of low maximum prices are the ones on the side of the consumer, while those who favour higher maximum prices are fighting the companies’ corner. In the Council, too, there were many who spoke in favour of putting the prices a bit higher, but things are not as simple as all that, for it is of course dynamic and tough competition that does most to benefit consumers.
I would like to remind you all that it is that sort of competition on which the success of the single market and of all forms of liberalisation is founded. It is crucial that a diversity of tariffs remain in place, and that there should be innovations in the field of roaming as much as elsewhere, and this is something to which many Member States, in the Council of Ministers, attached great importance. Setting roaming charges in stone would benefit nobody, for then there would be no scope for flat rate, for hourly contract or for bonus schemes, and what we want instead is to maintain the possibility of the consumer, and also industry, being able to determine the services on offer, with consumers continuing to have a free choice, and that is what this compromise achieves.
A great deal has been said from various quarters about the point at which the regulation is to enter into force, and I can assure you that the German Presidency has the greatest possible interest in getting this to happen as soon as possible, but the simple fact of the matter is that a number of formal steps have to be completed between today’s vote and the publication in the Official Journal; first of all, your resolution must be communicated to the Council, which must then come to a policy agreement on it – this will happen on 7 June – and then the versions of it in various languages must be produced – which will happen in the second week of June – then, in the third week of that month, the lawyer-linguists in all the institutions must read through it again, after which COREPER and the Council must formally adopt it, so that a great deal of effort will be required to get it published on 29 June.
I can assure you, though, that this dossier is being given priority in all the bodies required to deal with it; all deadlines are being cut, practically all meetings are being dispensed with, and much is being done through written processes; the fact that only in this timeframe can a correct procedure be ensured is something that should be borne in mind by all those who want to obviate legal risks in the publication of this regulation.
I think I can say, without having checked all the details, that, by the speed with which this directive has been adopted, we have broken a European record, and, since I have never in my life heard of a European champion who was angry at having run two-tenths of a second too slow, then neither should we be. Instead, let us rejoice in our shared success."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples