Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-16-Speech-4-025"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000316.2.4-025"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, may I start by thanking the Commission for its timely, well-judged and well-forecasted document. This is, of course, timed to coincide with the summit in Lisbon next week, and Parliament has had to work extremely speedily, for which I thank so many colleagues who have helped with this and, of course, the secretariat.
When I was a young child, a library was opened in a village where I was born and brought up; when the head teacher of the village school opened the library, he said that there were over 4 000 books in the library, and I thought with all the wisdom of a six-year old child: well, that is all the books in the world. Now, I personally own over 4 000 books, and, although this is hardly a knowledge revolution in itself, it is some indication, on a personal level extrapolated to a political level, of the pace of change in how knowledge is accessed, distributed, applied and refined. We ought to put this into some sort of context, though, and remind ourselves that the majority of people in the world have never made and probably never will make even one phone call.
The Commission proposals and Parliament's response give a clear acknowledgement that the market can and should be the motor for much of this change, but not in every case. The challenge is to work out when the European Union should let the market do the driving, and when we should intervene and regulate – when we should intervene, in whose interests and for how long. We should remember – and the Commission proposal and Parliament's response highlight the fact – that third-generation mobile telephones, on which so much of our future depends, are an area where clearly the European Union has an important lead, and that this lead is partly, though not wholly, explained by intervention. The adoption of the GSM standard has meant that the European Union has a tremendous advantage.
Our report mentions matters relating to social protection and the social implications of this change, and I am indebted to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and particularly Mr Cercas, draftsman of the opinion from that committee – the only committee that has been able to complete an opinion in the short space of time available – for his hard work. If I can explain procedurally and very briefly, the Social Affairs Committee voted on Monday evening at the same time as the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy and, with the agreement of the draftsman, I have taken over some of his proposals and put them down in my own political group's name. I hope that there will be support for those, because they go into a considerable amount of important detail.
Other amendments are looking at matters relating to disability rights. I have consulted widely about the need to ensure that certain fundamental principles about the rights of disabled users and disabled people at work are incorporated into this report, and I hope into future legislation under the 1999 review of telecommunications legislation, at a sufficiently early stage.
We have amendments about consumer protection – so important in the establishment of trust in e-commerce – on the future of taxation, on the implications for healthcare and for transport. Particularly important are going to be the employment consequences already seen and I tried hard to obtain a balance: not to be too alarmist because, of course, some of these changes will mean unemployment, but, on the other hand, to look at the opportunities for new sorts of work that the changes will bring. Whilst I was researching for these comments to make to you today, I looked for examples, because I think these illustrate so well to the citizens of the European Union how these developments will bring benefits to their lives. It is important, too, that we in Parliament and in the institutions of the European Union also apply modern methods, methods characterised by transparency and openness, in our own deliberations.
I should like to use my final few seconds to draw to your attention three projects in my own area. One of these is in Rutland, the smallest county in England, where a virtual Rutnet was set up, bringing together people in rural, isolated communities for purposes of leisure, transport, employment and social life generally. Further north, the Nottingham rural community council have set up a similar project in an area of serious mining deprivation, and this is bringing enormous benefits to many of the people in that area. On a broader basis, M-net, the European East Midlands network helping small businesses and craft enterprises and linking in with universities and colleges, is also important.
Finally, some comments, Mr President, on what the future holds. It is interesting to try to look into the future, and I should like to quote from the words of a famous Louis Armstrong song, ‘What a wonderful world’: ‘Babies are born, we watch them grow, they'll learn much more than I'll ever know’. I think for all of us the future for our children and grandchildren is a future of great opportunity, though also of great uncertainty. It is praiseworthy that the Commission is looking to play a leading, pivotal role in this, and I commend the Commission proposals and my own report to you."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples