§ Mr. Patrick ThompsonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Telecommunications Council on 16 June.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe Council reached unanimous agreement on the framework of an action plan to help510W launch widescreen television services. The four-year plan will be for Community funds, together with funds from othere sources, to be used to partially offset the additional costs to broadcasters and programme producers of broadcasting TV services, including high definition TV services, in the widescreen format. The settlement represents a considerable negotiating success for the United Kingdom. The 850 mecu Community subsidy originally proposed has been reduced to 228 mecu — £160 million; broadcasters and programme makers may use technologies other than the analogue MAC standards, such as PA LPlus or fully digital technologies; and the United Kingdom secured a valuable commitment that United Kingdom-based companies contributing to the action plan will be given due recognition of this in future European collaborative research and development and standardisation activities into digital TV.
The Council agreed a resolution on the Commission's review of the Community telecoms market. This states that voice telephony services will be liberalised by 1 January 1998, with an additional derogation period of no more than five years for Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland and, if justified, no more than two years for Luxembourg. The Commission will produce, by 1995, a green paper on liberalisation of network infrastructure. The United Kingdom and three other member states urged them also to carry out studies by the end of 1993 on network provision for corporate users. A common position was agreed in principle on the Council directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states concerning satellite earth station equipment modifying the scope of Council directive 91/263/EEC, establishing harmonised procedures for type approval. There was also a short debate on the Green Paper on Postal Services during which the Commission set out a timetable for future work in preparing draft directives. The Commission also briefly reported progress in preparing a Community programme for support of trans-European networks in the tele-communications field.