§ Mr. DoverTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the outcome of the EU Telecommunications Council on 28 November. [8509]
§ Mr. Ian TaylorI represented the UK at the Telecommunications Council held in Brussels on 28 November.
The Council unanimously agreed a resolution on illegal and harmful content on the internet, based on the self-regulatory principles of the UK's NetWatch scheme.
No progress was made on a draft directive on postal services. A number of compromises concerning the second stage of liberalisation were considered but none attracted sufficient support.
There was a short debate on key issues of a directive on the application of open network provision to voice telephony in a competitive environment. Additionally, the European Commission made presentations on: the work of an experts group on potential health risks linked to mobile telecommunications; the Commission's Communication "Europe at the forefront of the global information society—Rolling Action Plan", its Green Paper on numbering policy for telecommunications services in Europe; and on an informal meeting on satellite communications held in Paris on 10 October.