Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-10-Speech-1-094"
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"en.20011210.5.1-094"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance wishes to add its voice to the chorus of approval for everyone who has worked so long and hard to enable us to inch forward module by module. All of the previous speakers, and above all you, Mr President-in-Office, were right in saying that we need to see all this in the light of the e-Europe initiative and of the internal market. I would like to express my appreciation of your efforts not only personally, but also on behalf of my group, and I know that sometimes things get sorted out in the corridor, over a coffee or in other informal ways, over a sumptuous meal, for example.
I am sorry to tell you that I have a bit of stomach ache. Not because I have spent so much time recently with lobbyists from one side or another over sumptuous dinners, but because depending on how you look at it, what is on offer is either too much or too little. Too much in the sense mentioned by Mr van Velzen: ‘eat up, that is all you are getting’, or too little in as much as when we reach compromises we have to accept proposals from the European Parliament being slightly amended, with small, nebulous changes involving little words like ‘shall’ and ‘may’, which are then taken out, so that I suddenly feel that the amendments are not so minor any more.
I would like to briefly pick out one point, as I had an excellent exchange of information throughout the whole period of cooperation with Mr Harbour. I would like to highlight just one point in the context of the Universal Service Directive, and that concerns consumers with disabilities. We are not giving anything away here. We live in a society which for reasons of solidarity and on economic grounds takes whatever steps need to be taken. What is at stake here is that after many years we are giving some very important signals in this area, in order to give people with disabilities full access to the information and communication society as fully integrated consumers. This political willingness, this political awareness and this political will would simply not have existed to the same extent 20 years ago. I just wanted to mention that point to demonstrate to you all that time is a great healer. However, that will certainly not cure my stomach ache.
I think that because of this stomach ache I would very gladly vote for this compromise, because, just like all of you, I am in favour of this internal market, and I would have been happier if it had already been established now, not at some point in the near future. However, I too will close by mentioning the crucial points that other Members have already touched upon, and which I do not really think are solved in the compromise: interoperability, digital television, transmission obligations, and Article 6 of the framework directive. Whether this fare is too much or too little, I think it takes us forward an inch or two. I would be very interested to hear what else you may have to say to us, and then, even if it upsets my stomach, we would be happy to say ‘yes’."@en1
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