§ Mr. Ian BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Telecommunications Council on 14 December 1990.
§ Mr. RedwoodThe main item for discussion was a communication from the Commission to the Council on the Commission's green paper on satellite communications —"Towards Europe-wide systems and services—Green Paper on a common approach in the field of Satellite communications in the European Community"—which was published on 20 November 1990. The Commission's proposals envisage wide-ranging liberalisation of the use of satellite terminal equipment on a Community-wide basis and equitable and non-discriminatory access to satellite capacity for all telecommunications service providers. The Council held an orientation debate in which the United Kingdom strongly supported the Commission's proposals.
The Council also adopted a resolution on the final phase of the co-ordinated introduction of pan-European public digital mobile cellular communications in the Community—GSM—and a recommendation on the co-ordinated introduction of digital European cordless telecommunications—DECT. A common position was agreed on a proposal for a Council directive on the frequency bands to be reserved for DECT.