Strasbourg, 17/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - Following the initiative report by Danielle Auroi (Greens/EFA, France) on the European Commission's communication on the integral deployment of third generation mobile communications in Europe (see Europe of 13 June 2002, p. 16), the European Parliament adopted a resolution on 12 February calling for greater emphasis on consumer choice. It called upon the Commission to put forward specific measures to promote the use of open platforms, so that consumers are not tied to a single operator.
The Parliament also asked the Commission to define a framework for the sharing of network infrastructure within the European Union in order to facilitate a faster, harmonised integral deployment of third generation networks and services. MEPs, however, emphasise that the development of third generation services should not require legislative intervention as it is important to allow the market to operate freely. They have furthermore condemned a national approach to third generation, stating that there are currently fifteen different regimes within the EU for the allocation of frequency to operators.
In its resolution, the Parliament also highlights the fact that within the EU member states, levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields resulting from mobile communication equipment are already well above the limits recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In a press conference, Danielle Auroi emphasised the importance of protecting health and the environment. "We have added a series of environmental and health criteria the Commission had not considered," she stressed, lambasting the attitude of right-wing MEPs, "the same ones who assured us twenty years ago that magnetisation was quite safe." She believes that having introduced a reference to the WHO recommendations, which carried out studies into the existence of harmful effects of mobile telephones and antennae, the European Parliament has in fact flagged up the principle of precaution. Mme Auroi also considers that if the members states have to use public money to help install third generation mobile telephones managed by the private sector, they will have to recognise the mobile telephone as a "universal service" of equal status with water, for example.
Finally, as to electronic security, the Parliament believes that special attention should be paid to the security of payments made via mobile technology and requests that greater consideration be given to this problem, in the form of political action and appropriate technology, such as the mobile payment system initiative (MPIS).