Mr President, colleagues, it is always a pleasure to be debating with each other in such cosy circumstances late at night. I certainly did not know when I took on the rapporteurship of something as obscure as local loop unbundling that it would be quite so controversial and so complicated as it has proved nor that our discussions would culminate in such nocturnal circumstances. The local loop unbundling regulation is an important piece of legislation which completes unfinished business from the past but also represents an important step forward into the future. It completes unfinished business in the past because it is enforcing competition in the final segment of the telecommunications world which until now had escaped earlier liberalising European measures. At the same time, by ensuring that access to the local loop – the last mile of so-called copper wire – is now open to all new market entrants and is not the exclusive province of the so-called incumbent operators, the regulation will act as a significant boost for increased choice of non-voice services for consumers. It should lower prices for consumers and act as a boost to the take-up of new fancy broadband services and so point Europe very firmly in a dynamic, forward-looking direction. As such, it will help fulfil the promise made in Lisbon in March of this year when a number of ambitious targets were set, which, it is said, will help ensure that the gap that has opened between the European Union and the United States in the information economy is closed as soon as possible. The procedure we had to follow, in order to act as quickly as possible upon the conclusions of the Lisbon Summit and the proposal of the Commission in July, has been unusual. I am told that if we vote on the report tomorrow and adopt our report as voted in the committee it will be the fastest piece of legislation of this type ever processed by the European Union institutions. This has only been possible because of an unprecedented degree of cooperation. Firstly, cooperation with the Commission – and I would like to thank Commissioner Liikanen and all his extremely good officials who have been working on this for their assiduous help throughout the process. They really have provided us all with an invaluable service. I would also like to thank the Council for their cooperation, firstly driven by the mandate in the conclusions in the Lisbon summit but also by a particularly effective series of French Presidency initiatives in the Council of Ministers and last and by no means least I would like to express thanks for cooperation within this House. I have had the privilege and the benefit of working with a number of colleagues of all groups who have pulled together in the committee to produce the report which we will be voting on tomorrow. I would like to thank all of them for the great cooperation which they have extended to me. It has not been easy: firstly, because the procedure is difficult, it is new. Those of us who have worked on it all agree that if this sets a precedent for the future, we could perhaps consider promulgating some rules which will facilitate this kind of process in the future but also some rules on substance. This is a measure which is clearly going to prove to be painful to some of the incumbent operators involved and I understand that a number of colleagues have been in discussions with incumbent operators and I am very grateful to them for conveying their concerns to me and also working with me to find an appropriate way forward. We can be proud of the work that we have completed and that I hope we will complete by our vote tomorrow. It shows that, even in difficult and controversial areas of policy such as this, this House is able to act decisively and clearly when it needs to and for that I would once again like to extend my thanks to all concerned.

Political group: ELDR