Mr President, Commissioner, this is a fairly historic moment, because it is now Wednesday evening, and this is the last report on this evening's agenda. It is also my last report in this House, because after ten years, I am retiring. Not so long ago, the importance of the Lisbon process was discussed once again during the Summit in Brussels. If we want to turn Europe into the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based society by 2010, there is of course a great deal left to be done. As we have already witnessed in the case of e-Europe 2005, a successful implementation of access to broadband largely relies on the availability of e-Content. Indeed, it is possible to have broadband, but if there is nothing on it, then the public will not exactly be enthusiastic. The same applies to advanced services for users of mobile telephony, and I would, for example, refer to the third generation. I spent a few weeks in China recently, and it struck me that the Chinese, together with the Japanese and the South Koreans, are already getting excited about fourth-generation mobile telephony. What this means, then, is that, in terms of third-generation mobile telephony too, Europe will be lagging ever further behind, as the figures at Nokia testify. In this light, the report on e-Content is extremely important, because it promotes an increase in productivity and innovation, better information products and services; it has a positive impact on e-Government, another area in which we are trailing behind badly, and it leads to more projects in the areas of e-Health, e-Business and e-Learning. I am therefore pleased that the Commissioner is here this evening. The Commission's present E-Content +-proposal identifies the obstacles, particularly in the areas of public interest in Europe, and also the areas in which the market is overlooking adequate investments. The market cannot do everything and the governments have a just role. In the current proposal, conditions are being created for better access to, and better use of, digital content and, where necessary, for greater economic return for services based on access to, and re-use of, digital content. The Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy has tabled 16 amendments to the Commission's proposal. By means of these, we want to ensure that the report targets the public sector, that consideration is given to the financial perspectives after 2007, that a budget to the tune of EUR 55 million will be set aside for the years 2005 and 2006, and that the total budget will amount to EUR 163 million. In this connection, I should like to take the opportunity of thanking my shadow-rapporteurs, Mrs Gil and Mrs Plooij-Van Gorsel, for the excellent working relationship we have had. It promised to be a good celebration, because the Council, with whom we negotiated, also benefited from completing in one reading, so that we would not face any delays. Our basic budget was EUR 163 million. The Council, and the Irish Presidency in particular, led us to believe that a deal was within reach if we were to reduce the amount to EUR 145 million. As befits good parliamentarians, we ultimately hoped for an amount in the region of 150 million, but, during the informal trialogue, the Irish Presidency responded that the budget should not exceed 120 million and added that, if we were to push a little, we could probably end up with 138 million. We indicated that this was insufficient for us and that 140 million was the absolute minimum. We subsequently asked the Council Presidency to declare in writing that an agreement was reached on 140 million. The deal expired at 1.30 p.m. this afternoon. It is characteristic of the Council that I received the following message at 5.11 p.m. I will quote it verbatim, as this will look good in the historical records. 'However, you ask for a written position from the Council in favour of a financial amount of one hundred and forty million euros. On the basis of the COREPER discussion this morning, this is not possible as there remains a clear blocking minority at one hundred thirty million euros. However, my own estimation, and that is as the Chairman of COREPER I and based on the contacts with a number of key delegations at and around the meeting, is that if the European Parliament were, via its vote tomorrow, to take a position for a higher amount than one hundred thirty million, it may very likely prove possible ultimately to gather a sufficient majority in the Council for that'. This is now the third time that we have received the same message from the Council, and each time we ask them to deliver, they respond that they are unable to do so. With this amount of, what I would call, uncertainty in the Council, we cannot but conclude that we are about to launch an election campaign. That we will be telling the citizens that the Council makes fine promises in Brussels where the Lisbon process in concerned, but as soon as it has to deliver, also in terms of financial means in order to achieve the Lisbon process, the Council fails to come up with the goods and leaves us empty-handed. It is extremely regrettable that we, who want to have the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010, and we in this House, are being treated by the Council in this manner. I am glad that election campaigns are on the way. They will in any event spur me on to take part and to denounce the Council's ambivalence. The future is bright.

Political group: PPE-DE