Brussels, 12/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to Per Haugaard, spokesperson for Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, he "took note" of a request by the Bouygues company to intervene with France to suspend for several months the granting procedure for third generation mobile telephone licences (UMTS) underway in this country. Martine Bouygues, President of the third largest French telecommunications operator, formulated, the 8 January, during a meeting with Commissioner Liikanen, this demand, which follows on from a complaint made by the French operator against the procedure used by France to allocating UMTS licences. Bouygues invoked the non-respect by the French State of the Directive on the granting of licences that states that all allocation procedures for rare resources, such as radio wave spectrum, must be transparent, pro-competitive and non-discriminatory. Per Haugaard adds that "it is still too early to rule, to the extent that the complaint is still at the analysing stage with the DG information society and competition."