Cable television: liberalisation of telecommunications infrastructure and networks. Green paper II

The European Parliament adopted the report by Mr Mark Hendrick. In its resolution, the European Parliament: - drew the Commission's and the Council's attention to the need to provide a high-quality, accessible universal service to all citizens of the Union, to be connected within an acceptable period of time, and called for the Commission to submit provisions governing the universal service as a matter of urgency; - called for national universal service funds to be created with contributions from all infrastructure and service operators based on their market share and gross return on earnings, in order to fund the expenditure generated in providing the universal service on the basis of real costs, and for tariffs to be gradually readjusted by 1 January 1998; - called for a powerful European control authority to be set up with jurisdiction, subject to the control of the Union's judicial authorities, to rule on litigation in connection with the conclusion of certain interconnection agreements; - called for the European regulatory authority to ensure that measures were taken when licences were granted in order to prevent networks being used for criminal or anti-social purposes (pornography) and for strict rules to protect consumers (teleshopping, new services); - called for special investment appropriations to be released so that communications networks could be made accessible in the less common EU languages and in remote regions; - called for the Commission to carry out studies on the cultural repercussions and impact on employment of the liberalization of telecommunications and cable television networks; - called on the Commission to draft directives regulating the rights and obligations of home workers and to ensure that they have the same legal status as employees working on the company premises; - stressed that a separate legal framework should be introduced for radio and television; - rejected the idea that network operators should be free to choose which broadcasters (radio and TV) they would distribute by cable and called for "must carry" rules to be applied to radio and television programmes; - insisted on personal data protection.�