WRITTEN QUESTION E-0283/01 by Alexander Radwan (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Internet access.
Date: 2001-02-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Internet, Internet access provider, access to information, fixing of prices, payable service, transmission network

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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Only beef which is declared fit

2.
veterinary and animal-health legislation may be accepted for the purpose of intervention purchase.

for human consumption in accordance with the Community

The Commission has no intention of opening intervention for older bulls as the market is considered to be
supported more effectively through the buying-in of younger animals, given the absolute limit on
intervention set by the Council.

3.
The slaughter premium for calves is fixed in basic Council Regulation (EC) No 1254/1999 of 17 May
1999 on the common organisation of the market in beef and veal (3) and can only be altered in that
context. The premium was established as an integral part of the compensation for the price reductions
agreed under Agenda 2000, and since prices in the veal sector have long been substantially above the level
intended under Agenda 2000 it would be difficult to justify any increase in the premium.

4.
It is also the Council’s competence to amend the basic rules on premiums for male animals. It
recently agreed to certain adjustments in order to achieve better market balance in the Community in the
medium term, but the proposal from the Honourable Member was not among the agreed amendments.

5.
An extensive BSE monitoring programme is in place to provide a clearer picture of the incidence of
BSE in the Community. Under that programme all adult cattle slaughtered for human consumption must
be tested for BSE and in addition all adult cattle dying on farms must be tested over a one-year period. The
programme was made possible by the development of rapid BSE tests, which the Commission has
evaluated. A second evaluation is currently being completed.

The Commission is also supporting a number of research projects under the Fifth Framework Programme
for Research and Technological Development. As indicated in the Communication on research activities in
Europe related to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) adopted by the Commission on 12 June
2001 (4), a specific call for research proposals was issued on 31 May 2001. The development of in vivo
tests for pre-clinical diagnosis is one of the four priority areas identified in the call.

In March 2001 the Commission sent the Council and Parliament its analysis of the impact of the
6.
animal-meal ban on demand for vegetable proteins. The Commission’s view is that, given the quantities
available, no supply problems will arise for plant protein in 2001 on either the Community or the world
markets. It also concluded that authorising the cultivation of set-aside land to produce plant protein would
weaken compulsory set-aside as an instrument
for controlling production and would be likely to
complicate the Community’s position in future discussions on agriculture in the World Trade Organisation.

7.
Commission Regulation (EC) No 192/2001 of 30 January 2001 amending Regulation (EC) No 2342/
1999 laying down detailed rules for premium schemes in the beef and veal sector (5) provides for
derogating measures that are intended to solve the short-term problem of increased density created by the
backlog of animals for slaughter or export.

(1) OJ L 321, 19.12.2000.
(2) OJ L 95, 5.4.2001.
(3) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.
(4) COM(2001) 323 final.
(5) OJ L 29, 31.1.2001.

(2002/C 93 E/003)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0283/01

by Alexander Radwan (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(9 February 2001)

Subject: Internet access

It is the aim of the EU to enable ever more citizens to have low-cost access to the Internet. One obstacle to
link their prices to connection time. A real
this is the fact that Internet service providers (ISPs) still

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breakthrough in Internet use will only be achieved when the user is able to experience and use the Internet
without time pressure, i.e. if unmetered Internet access is available.

Many ISPs are trying to stop the ‘ticking meter’ for the consumer. However, these ISPs then face risks
which are hard to calculate, since the telecommunications firms charge for the necessary upstream
products only in the form of a metered tariff, not at a flat rate. Consequently, flat rate Internet services are
offered even more rarely.

Does the Commission consider that one reason for this is that the former monopolies in particular mostly
charge by the minute and not on the basis of capacities? The regulatory authorities in the UK and the
Netherlands have now compelled the former monopolies to sell capacities to ISPs at a flat rate. What is the
Commission’s view of
tele-
communications firms should make a similar offer to industrial providers? If so, what form should this
take and how should it be implemented?

the ‘FRIAGO’ model? Does the Commission consider it necessary that

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(18 April 2001)

Flat rate internet access is offered in a number of Member States, either by the incumbent or by alternative
market players. There are also many other tariff packages offered to Internet users, such as ‘subscription-
free’ Internet access. The regulatory authorities in the Netherlands and the UK have, in arriving at their
decisions to compel the former incumbents to provide Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO)
to other market players, taken into account the specific situation in their markets. The FRIACO model,
where Internet service providers (ISPs) and other market players pay the incumbent a flat rate for call
origination, instead of a metered tariff, and where access has to be offered on non-discriminatory terms,
appears an efficient measure in the Netherlands and UK markets. The Commission welcomes the decisions
of the regulators in the UK and in the Netherlands to apply the FRIACO model, although there is currently
no legal basis in Community legislation enabling the Commission to force the regulatory authorities in all
Member States to adopt the same approach.

As mentioned in the Sixth Report on implementation of the telecommunications regulatory package, a
quarter of the EU population used the Internet (at home, at work or at school) during the first half of
2000, and the number of ISPs has increased in most Member States, with at least one hundred local or
national ISPs in the market in many, and in some several hundred. The number of Internet hosts per 1 000
inhabitants has increased in all Member States, with average growth in the EU of 33 % between July 1999
and January 2000. The Sixth Report, based on OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development) data, also showed that Internet access costs were slightly higher in the EU than in the USA,
in March 2000.

The Commission has recently taken a number of important measures with relevance for the Internet. The
European Council of Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 200 called for the Member States, together with the
Commission, to introduce greater competition in local access networks by unbundling the local loop, in
order to help bring about substantial reductions in the costs of using the Internet. The Feira European
Council of 19-20 June 2000 endorsed the ‘e-Europe 2002 Action Plan’ (1) which identifies unbundled
access to the local loop as a short term priority. Unbundled access to the local loop inter alia allows new
entrants to compete with established operators by offering high bit-rate data transmission services for
continuous Internet access based on digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. The resulting Regulation on
local loop unbundling (2) requires all former incumbents to provide unbundled access to the local loops as
of 31 December 2000.

(1)

‘e-Europe D An Information Society For All’, of 14 June 2000, prepared by the Council and the European
Commission for the Feira European Council 19-20 June 2000.

(2) Regulation (EC) 2887/2000 of the Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on unbundled access to the

local loop, OJ L 336, 30.12.2000.