Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-01-Speech-3-089"
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"en.19991201.7.3-089"2
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"Mr President, it is my privilege to speak again in a debate with Mrs Halonen. In fact, my first ever speech in this Chamber was back in July when I commended the Finnish Presidency on giving priority to information society and its work programme. Tonight, as we draw towards the close of that presidency, I want to commend the Finnish Presidency for working on this, but also to express some disappointment that it has not made more of the opportunities. Mrs Halonen only just managed to fit in a mention of information society – I think right in the last sentence of her speech – and yet, according to a paper that I received from the Commission last week, we are to have an e-Europe initiative presented at Helsinki, a paper entitled “Information Society for All”. So far, we have not seen that. “All” clearly still does not include Members of the European Parliament, so not many people know about it. Indeed it barely rated a mention in your speech, but I hope that the Council is going to spend some time on this vital topic.
Could I also say on the broader topic of completing the internal market that, during the Finnish Presidency, we have had some very important strategy papers and they actually require a much higher priority than they are receiving in the Community at the moment. Indeed, the motion for a resolution I saw this morning contained no mention of any internal market or information society initiatives at all, despite the work that has been going on under your Presidency. I tabled an addendum in the name of my group this morning to include those items and I hope very much it will receive the support of this House.
In conclusion, I also hope that the Finnish Presidency will remind Member governments at the Helsinki Council that creating a single market requires that cross-border takeovers and the restructuring of key industries must be allowed to proceed without political interference by Member governments. I am sure that Members of this House will know that there is a crucial takeover battle under way at the moment in the telecommunications sector. I have to say I am disappointed to see that some of the comments by senior politicians, and even Members of the Commission, suggest that the whole philosophy of an internal market has still to be fully accepted."@en1
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