Telecoms package

Speech by Fiona delivered to Plenary of the European Parliament on Tue 5th May 2009

Madam President, I welcome the agreement on the telecoms package because this agreement brings in its wake another agreement on a less discussed issue: the repeal of the GSM Directive.

The mobile telephony industry has been understandably very anxious to get access to the radio spectrum bandwidth currently reserved for GSM, in order to maintain its global competitiveness. However, MEPs were anxious to ensure that democratic accountability over use of the spectrum was maintained.

Previous spectrum-related pieces of legislation, such as the mobile satellite services decision, have shown that many issues said by the Commission to be technical do, in fact, have a political side to them. What is technical may, in fact, affect principles of cohesion and access for everybody. So I welcome the fact that, through the telecoms package, MEPs will now retain scrutiny of spectrum allocation.

I will be voting for the telecoms package, but I do so with a certain reluctance, because I believe there has been a fundamental betrayal, at the highest level, of the basic principle of the telecoms liberalisation that this directive was supposed to achieve. I am referring to the words in Article 8 about ensuring access to incumbents and their approach to the market. It seems to me that the deal that was done on this wording in a private conversation between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Merkel has given incumbents, such as Deutsche Telekom, a huge advantage. We do not know what Prime Minister Brown got in return. I am afraid that private deals by leaders behind closed doors are not the way to make EU legislation. I regret that this occurred.