Mobile and personal communications

‘The COUNCIL - NOTES that the Commission requested, on 3 August 1995, any comments from the Council on the draft Commission Directive amending Directive 90/388/EEC as regards mobile and personal communications; sent the President-­in-­Office of the Council, on 29 September 1995, the draft Commission Directive amending Directive 90/388/EEC as regards the implementation of full competition in telecommunications markets; - NOTES also the public consultation launched by the Commission following the publication of the two draft Directives in the Official Journal of the European Communities; - REAFFIRMS that it is important that the conditions governing the definition of the Community’s future policy on the liberalisation of telecommunications services and infrastructures should result from a political agreement based on the compromise of December 1989 and takes note of the Commission’s support for this approach; - RECALLS in this connection the political agreement reached at the Telecommunications Council meeting on 17 November 1994, which was given concrete form in the Council Resolution of 22 December 1994 and in the statements made on that occasion; RECALLS that this Resolution recognises in particular the principle of liberalisation of telecommunication infrastructures on 1 January 1998, on the understanding that an additional transitional period is granted to certain Member States; - POINTS OUT that the Commission must also take account in its approach: of the responsibilities of the European Parliament and the Council for the legislative provisions designed, on the basis of Commission proposals, to establish the European regulatory framework for telecommunications, particularly as regards interconnection rules, universal service provision, access to frequencies for terminal equipment and licensing; of the need for consistency and balance between the processes of harmonisation and liberalisation; of the time that may be required by the Member States for adopting national measures to implement the Directives proposed by the Commission; - EMPHASISES that these conclusions are without prejudice to the Member States’ respective positions on the form and content of the draft Directives submitted by the Commission; - NOTES in this connection that, when this text was examined by the Council’s subordinate bodies, many questions were put to the Commission by the Member States and that since then most of the Member States have also forwarded written comments on one of the Commission drafts; - CALLS ON the Commission to reply to the questions put to it and to take the utmost account of the positions expressed by the Council and the Member States before taking any further action that it deems appropriate in respect of these initiatives.’