Mr President, the draft regulation we are now discussing provides for the implementation of the .eu top-level domain, which should raise the profile of the European Union in cyberspace and allow the ring of confidence created by the single market to shine through to the Internet. In the vote at first reading in July 2001, Parliament adopted amendments tabled by the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy and the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market. The amendments primarily reaffirmed the principles of non-interference and self-management in the realm of the Internet and recommended efficient administration of the .eu domain, with less red tape. Although the Council accepted a large number of our amendments in the common position adopted on 6 November 2001, some of them did not meet with its approval. The Committee on Industry therefore went back on the offensive to call for the ‘first come, first served’ principle to be taken into account in registration policy, so that the policy of extrajudicial conflict settlement could be based on recovery of costs and in particular so that the consultative procedure could be provided within the committee structure. In fact, the Committee on Industrial Affairs, like the Commission, felt that the .eu top-level domain must become operational as soon as possible and must be able to work quickly and efficiently in order to be successful. To the very end, the issue of the consultative or regulatory nature of the committee structure was the main sticking point in the discussions between Parliament and the Commission on the one hand and the Council on the other. Informal contacts between Parliament, the Council and the Commission were continued after the amendments tabled by the Committee on Industry were adopted, and the three institutions finally reached an agreement. This agreement is reflected in Amendments Nos 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, which have been tabled on behalf of the Group of the , Group of the and Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party. As far as the committee structure is concerned, we split the difference or rather, we adopted two thirds of the one position and one third of the other. The regulatory mode will apply to most measures concerning the implementation of the regulation, in other words, the general interest policy rules and principles and the definition of the criteria and procedure for the designation of the Registry. The consultative mode will apply to the designation of the Registry and to the conclusion of the contract between the Commission and the Registry. The reason why the Commission and Parliament ultimately accepted a compromise about which they are less than enthusiastic is that they want the .eu domain to be made available to users as soon as possible, in accordance with the desire expressed by the Lisbon European Council. Mr President, on behalf of Parliament, may I insist that the Commission and the Council undertake to pursue this aim with due diligence. I know that Commissioner Liikanen intends to make a statement to this effect during this part-session and that the declaration to the same effect that is due to be adopted by the Council will be communicated to us tomorrow before the vote on the amendments. On this basis I recommend to the House that we vote in favour of Amendments Nos 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Mr President, following the numerous informal contacts with the Council and the Commission which enabled us to reach a compromise, I should like to thank Commissioner Liikanen and the staff of his departments, the Spanish presidency for its unstinting efforts, my colleagues, Mrs McCarthy, draftsman for the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, and the coordinators of the political groups. Together we have achieved a result which should pave the way so that the .eu top-level domain can be launched at the end of the year.

Political group: ELDR