Brussels, 29/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the telecommunications ministers of the EU adopted a general orientation on the proposal of the European Commission to repeal the GSM directive (which reserved certain bands of frequency of the radio spectrum purely for GSM communications) in order to extend the use of these bands to offer a broader choice of service and technologies (UMTS). France and the United Kingdom kept in place the Parliamentary reserve they had entered, which did not prevent the Council from adopting the general orientation, pending the first reading of the European Parliament. The Council furthermore took note of a report by the Portuguese presidency on the state of progress in work towards a decision concerning the selection and authorisation of systems providing mobile services by satellite. The Commission proposes bringing in joint selection procedures at Community level for operators of mobile satellite systems, and for provisions on the coordinated authorisation by the national authorities of the operators selected for the use of the radio frequencies required to operate the systems within the EU. All delegations congratulated the Commission on its proposal. Certain questions, however, remain outstanding on the proposed pan-European coverage. Although they are all in agreement over the principle, the member states remain sceptical as regards the actual possibility of achieving this objective. They are concerned that certain zones may not be covered by satellite mobile services and that there may be delays, to the detriment of the users, leading to a two-speed Europe, with some member states enjoying perfect coverage and all existing services, and others with only partial coverage and few services available. (I.L.)