Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-05-Speech-2-032"
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"en.20090505.3.2-032"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank all my fellow Members for the really excellent work they have done. I would also have liked to thank the Council, but I see they are not present; however, the Commissioner is here. I believe we have done something good.
Mr Harbour, you were the rapporteur for the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and I must say that our collaboration and the joint action were very positive. We have achieved a great deal for citizens, which in the area of universal service is especially important for us Social Democrats. This telecom package has been made much more customer friendly and so an important contribution has been made to consumer protection. In future telecommunication providers will also have to offer contracts of just 12 months duration, which is very important. Until now there were many providers who only offered 24 month contracts, which is a very long period of time and prevents people from exiting from a contract early. That is quite an important contribution. When changing provider, consumers must be able to keep their own number within a day. Until now long waiting times have often made people give up switching to a cheaper provider and have hampered competition in this area. Here too we have had great success.
The Socialist Group has meanwhile sought to ensure that, when making an emergency call from a mobile, the position is transmitted automatically, so allowing help to reach the person quickly. There was a long struggle to push this through as well, because to start with many maintained that this was not technically possible at all. It has been proven that it is possible and so it also had to be done. This is a great help for our citizens.
Soon it should also be easier for people with disabilities. They must be ensured unimpeded access to means of telecommunication. Here too we must – particularly when we are talking about universal services – ensure that it goes ahead, and that too is very positive.
There was one point which has been controversial throughout: how do we deal with criminal prosecution where questions regarding criminal offences or matters of civil law respectively arise? We have taken an important step with the compromise we reached today with the Council, as we have included judicial reservation. Judicial reservation means that we do not leave it up to enterprises alone to decide which sanctions are imposed; instead, using rights, as captured in the European Convention on Human Rights, we have ensured that consumers can defend themselves and service providers do not have excessive power. This is a really important point."@en1
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