Luxembourg, 28/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council's political agreement regarding the directive on universal service, reached on Wednesday in Luxembourg, is a "very important decision" that will allow each and everyone to have guaranteed Internet access, as well as access to fax and telephone services, Björn Rosengren, Council President, was pleased to state.
Commissioner Erkki Liikanen underlines, for his part, that the Directive will be evolving, to follow the development of technologies and social and economic developments. The French Minister for Telecommunications and Industry, Christian Pierret, welcomed, as for him, the decision, which also guarantees access to the Internet for the poorest.
The Council's common position, which must still be formalised before the second reading by the European Parliament, resolves the points that remains pending in the following manner: 1) the Member States could chose the ways in which to finance the compensation proposed to operators under the obligation of public service: national budgetary resources and compensation funds. The Commission has undertaken to ensure that there is no distortion to competition between the States; 2) concerning the obligation to broadcast television or radio programmes, the text, defined on Wednesday after long talks, specifies that when the broadcasting obligations are imposed by the Member States, they should be reasonable, proportional and transparent, in the light of the clearly defined aim of general interest, and may, when it is necessary, entail proportional remuneration. The key element is that the obligations must be reasonable, underlines Erkki Liikanen; 3) for leased line access used by companies for the permanent transfer of data, the Council finally followed the Commission's line, by specifying that the regulatory authorities may require that a sufficient number of lines be made available, according to criteria defined in annex of the Directive.
Let us recall that the Commission had made an initial proposal on the statute of the European company in 1970, but that the divergences over the issue of the participation of workers have prevented any agreement, and that the present text is base on a new proposal, from 1989. The regulation applies to companies with a subscribed capital of at least EUR 120,000.