Brussels, 20/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission adopted a Communication in which it establishes an inventory of the situation of third generation mobile telephony (3G or UMTS) in the EU. While the new economy has suffered from a readjustment in the financial markets and that ten Member States out of the fifteen have issues 3G licences, the Commission continues to believe that this technology can contribute in a "significant" manner to the establishment of the information society in Europe. The Communication develops four aspects as conditions for the success of the new generation: 1) the regulatory framework, 2) the financial context, 3) the need to acquire experience in this new market, 4) the pending technical issues. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for telecommunication, reiterated his confidence in 3G, stating to the press: "we have to remember that 3G is built on very strong foundations: in the foreseeable future it is the only viable, widely supported common platform for all wireless applications". At the same time, he recognised a collapse of new technologies in certain American and Japanese stock markets. He invited the Member States to increase their coordination for the definition of the conditions for granting 3G licences in order to put an end to the fragmentation, which leads to varying prices for licences from zero Euro per capita in Finland to EUR 652 in the United Kingdom.