Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, my colleagues, Europe's greatest change is, of course, the networking which has taken place; this certainly unifies us Europeans more than a common currency. It is of everyday and full-time significance, and its importance is growing all the time. The core philosophy of the entire grand project for an electronic Europe is that the digital divide should not take hold in Europe in the way that it threatens to take hold in many other parts of the world; and we, as well as Parliament, the Council and the Commission all share a common line here. The Commission's draft framework directive and the other statutes belonging to this telecoms package follow the correct line and are very balanced, and I am highly satisfied with them. In this rapidly-moving period of change, we will make up for lost ground; and particular attention has been paid to the importance of convergence, of rapprochement. This means that, to an ever increasing extent, the same content can be prepared on the same hardware, be transferred along the same routes and be received on the same apparatus. This creates a wholly new information space, or perhaps I should say information world, since this is a part of us, it is a part of us in the workplace, at home and when we are travelling. Here, in Parliament, we desire that this world be regulated, but that at the same time competition be secured, so that no monopolies, duopolies or cartels are generated. This will maintain a low pricing level, easy access, and employment and growth in this area. I could venture to say that if we had had these regulations in force at the time when we decided on the ‘electronic Europe’ at Lisbon and when (at the same time) the auction in frequencies was initiated, then it would not have been possible for the catastrophe of the frequency auctions to unfold in the way that it did. It would have been possible to standardise the bid auctions and to harmonise practice, and consequently such irregularities would not have taken place, the sector would not have been driven to its knees and we would have saved many hundreds from bankruptcies and the unfortunate unemployment consequences linked to these. A telecoms package which consolidates the Union's telecommunication legislation will have great significance in competition with others outside the European Union. It will result in us having more harmonised markets for this sector which in itself is already international and border-transcending. We will then also obtain the benefit of the European Union's advantages of scale, which in turn will surely have an impact on both employment and on the success possibilities of firms and on pricing. Of these five statutes, I regard the framework directive to be the most important. The most difficult matters have been dealt with here. Now we have before us my draft report which has been processed by the committee, for which I thank my colleagues (it was approved unanimously), and then also the presentation of the Presidency State. It has gone far in order to meet Parliament half way, and in my opinion we should approve it. It takes account of Parliament's stance in two central matters which we have been taking up for discussion throughout this summer and autumn: Article 6 and Article 4. The latter concerns the appeals procedure and the former concerns the relationship between the Commission and the national regulatory authorities. Now for the first time, and this can be regarded as a breakthrough, the Commission can intervene in a national statute, if this statute is not in harmony with the general statutes, both in the definition of the market and in the definition of a significant market position. These are the two matters which we wanted to see implemented, and now, thanks to the Presidency State, they are in your proposal. Furthermore, I hope that the Presidency State can tell us whether it is also possible that the Council may commit to this as well. If this is so, then this package should in my opinion be approved. I have been given to understand that the Commission is also of this view.

Political group: PSE