§ Mr. MerchantTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the outcome of the European Community Telecommunications Council on 27 June. [35747]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorI represented the UK at the Telecommunications Council held in Luxembourg on 27 June.
The Council reached political agreement on a common position on a directive amending the open network provision framework and leased lines directives 90/387/EEC and 92/44/EEC to a competitive environment. Germany indicated its intention of voting against the common position. The Council also reached political agreement on a common position on a directive on the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector. Portugal indicated its intention of abstaining on the common position.
In addition, the Council reached political agreement on a common position on a decision on inter-administration telematic networks for statistics relating to the trading of goods between member states—EDICOM. Germany and the UK indicated their intention of voting against the common position. The Council reached political agreement on brief conclusions inviting the Commission to present a proposal to amend the ONP voice telephony directive 95/62/EC, and to report regularly to the Council on universal service in telecommunications.
Following discussion by the Council, three proposals—on Community postal services, telecommunications licensing, and on the promotion of linguistic diversity in the information society—were referred back to the Committee of Permanent Representatives for further discussion. There was also an informal lunchtime discussion of satellite personal communications systems, and of the problem of the century date change for computer systems.