Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-10-Speech-1-090"
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"en.20011210.5.1-090"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, allow me, in turn, to thank the rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs for the work they have carried out in tandem with the presidency, in the search for a common platform on the basis of which we can reach agreement. This will allow us to take a reasonably prompt decision at long last, thus promoting the development of the entire telecom sector, and hence the development of the internal market. I should also like to include the Commission in my thanks, which, together with the rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, helped us in every way possible to reach a common position.
Allow me to outline the process we went through. By process, I mean the procedure we followed to reach a package which is hopefully acceptable to Parliament.
You have to bear in mind that it is not easy to reconcile very different opinions, especially where Member States are concerned, in order to be able to produce a package at the end of it. It is therefore in this context that the response, prepared by the presidency, to the recommendations for second reading concerning the directives which are now before us, can, in fact, be seen as a very balanced response, which in the view of the presidency might be acceptable.
Needless to say, a number of additional explanatory statements will have to be drafted, for it is impossible to include everything in the body of a directive, for example with regard to comments by the first rapporteur, Mrs Niebler. In my view, it is indeed self-evident that a new policy requires information and involvement by, for example, Parliament, certainly when it comes to the use of the existing spectrum. Despite this, I believe that this general principle will necessitate a clarification from the party applying it, namely the Commission, and I therefore also believe that explanatory statements by the Commission, not simply on this score but also on a number of other aspects, could prove useful, as a number of rapporteurs have already stated.
I believe my present role to be as follows: if you, as Parliament, could ensure that this common response by the Council’s presidency will be accepted by you, then this is what will actually happen in practice. In other words, it is, in my opinion, very important to me that I can officially say to you that, if the Commission can indeed fully support our response and if Parliament can fully accept this common position of the Council, the Council will accept this accordingly. In other words, it is a package, as was stated a moment ago. A package entails the risk that if you tug at one string of the package, the whole thing may fall apart. I am not saying this because I like saying this, but because political realism, with which we are all familiar, teaches us that, if we want to proceed swiftly, we need to adopt a common position which offers a huge amount of benefits. Let us be honest, the Council’s flexibility towards Parliament has been exemplary, and contained a crucial message which was news to me, namely that the concept of the internal market is clearly being prioritised, even by the Council. If you ask me, this is a very special new message.
It is in this context that the response of the Council’s presidency is being presented to you here, and I would not like to see my colleagues who have asked me to tell you this, revisiting their previous common position by running a risk and tugging at a string – and I am saying this in all candour – for I then believe that we would be at a complete loss as to know where we would end up in some future procedure or other.
In my view, we have now reached a point where we can make enormous headway, where the Council’s flexibility is, I dare say, rather exemplary, where we stimulate industry, where we contribute towards establishing the internal market and, via the internal market, create advantages for the consumer in all its diversity and with all its aspects
via universal service, which we all set so much store by. In other words, the Council gives you the formal pledge that, if the Commission supports this fully, and if you deem this package to be acceptable, the Council will actually implement this package without any exception."@en1
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