Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-18-Speech-1-091"
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".
Mr President, I should like, above all, to thank the rapporteur and the Members of your House for this very important mission. We are concerned here with what is in fact a people-focused policy, in view of the fact that neither the economy nor the market can, on its own, provide people in the regions with access to broadband, and we all know that broadband accelerates development and reduces inequality insofar as people have access to it. This access problem, then, needs to be addressed by us.
I would like to make one last point. All this is wonderful, but we need spectrum and that is why we are working on having spectrum available for all these services which will be needed by one technology or another in our rural areas for our ageing society. I am, of course, referring to health, but also to the questions of education and of e-government, which are crucial elements. As regards e-government, we will be holding a big ministerial conference, together with stakeholders, in September and will discuss how to make better use of the services in order to reach the population, important above all for the ageing population and for people who live far away from urban centres.
Secondly, the Commission is working on making spectrum available for example for the 2.6 MHz band. I am really counting on the positive effect of the digital dividend when we switch from analogue to digital, where we should be looking at the spectrum below 1 MHz. This is very interesting indeed for the new services which we will need in order to have broadband for all.
Thank you, rapporteur, for the important work which has been done. This is only the beginning of the work we have to do together in order to make Europe a place of equilibrium between all citizens allowing them to access the new technology without a digital divide but, rather, with a digital dividend for our society.
My use of the pronoun ‘us’ indicates the obvious – that the Commissioner within whose remit this dossier falls cannot handle it alone, and that is why we in the Commission have combined our forces, so that Mrs Kroes has started work on it – and I will take this opportunity to thank her for that, and for having positively immersed herself in it – while it also has to be said that state aid is an essential feature. The Commissioner responsible for rural development is also working on it, however, as are the Commissioner responsible for regional development and the Commissioner with responsibility for consumer affairs, so responsibilities really are being pooled within the Commission in order to resolve these problems. I believe that Commissioner Kroes has already spoken to you about state subsidies and told you that she has decided that such aid should be given subject to very clear and precise conditions, at the point at which the market is unable to resolve these problems on its own.
Broad-based debate will be of use to us in considering the universality of service provision; does it really need to be extended at a time like the present, when it does not include broadband, or is it not necessary to extend it? In the course of this evening’s debates I have already heard some very divergent positions articulated, and we will need to clarify these; that is why we are going to use the Green Paper that I intend to put before you in early 2008 as a means of launching a broad debate that will enable us to see how to legislate on these matters, or what sort of legislation is to be avoided.
Concerning quite specific elements, it is clear that the Commission will not only make speeches or organise conferences, such as the conference on bridging the digital divide in rural areas some weeks ago, but will also take specific action. For instance, we will launch a website before the end of this year to act as a central information platform publishing calls for tender and providing a one-stop-shop for exchange of best practice. We hope that this website will become a virtual meeting point between suppliers and local governments.
The second action concerns the new programming period of the Structural Funds and it includes the initiative ‘Regions for economic change’, which aims to help Member States implement the new Lisbon Strategy through action aimed at economic modernisation. This initiative includes two thematic networks on ICT, broadband and e-government. Finally, there will be the European transnational networks initiative that will help authorities planning transport and energy infrastructure and make them take account of the telecom needs as well, because deploying DACs and DAC fibre alongside this infrastructure may reduce the future telecom costs by 80 %, so it will be very important to foresee the exploitation of synergies when making this kind of investment.
Having said that, I am also very conscious of the fact that technologies such as WiMAX or satellites will be an alternative to fibre and DACs, for instance.
It has been asked whether we can provide more precise guidance regarding the use of Structural Funds, in particular, where a partial supply of such service already exists. Since 2003, there have been guidelines for the use of Structural Funds in the electronic communications, but 2003 is a very long time ago in a field where technology is very fast-moving. That is why, over the past two years, the Commission has developed the consistent decision practice of applying state aid rules to broadband support measures. Most of the measures assessed contain Structural Fund co-financing. We have already issued 26 decisions in this area and those clarify further under which conditions public funds for broadband can be granted.
Having said that, I would also like to say that these EU funds are not allocated to private enterprises: they are allocated to public authorities and it is those public authorities, for instance the regional authorities, which define their operational programmes. The Commission does not supervise those projects except for the large projects over EUR 50 million. Those then undergo examination by DG REGIO, DG COMM and/or DG INFSO.
Another point which has been made is the question of our citizens who suffer from some form of disability during their lifetime. Now these may be disabled people, but we will also have an ageing population. We have calculated that about 50 % of our citizens will be disabled at least once during their lifetime. Therefore, at the end of last month we issued a communication on ageing well in the information society. Here we focus on making all ICT services accessible to citizens and to help most of all those with special needs. I believe that this will go beyond the regional questions and the digital divide and will be one of the problems we will have to solve in months and years to come. I would really like Parliament to come in on this question, which will also be an important topic for discussion with our citizens, above all in the prospect of the European elections to come."@en1
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