27 November Telecoms Council

Date: 30/11/1995

THE European Commission was attacked by a number of member states opposed to its telecoms liberalisation plan. Among the critics were France, Belgium, Spain and Ireland. They accused Brussels of moving too fast and using undemocratic weapons, such as Article 90 of the Treaty of Rome, to achieve its objectives.

TELECOMS ministers decided to cut funds aimed at boosting Europe's multimedia industry. They agreed in principle to launch a four-year kickstart programme called INFO 2000, but decided to slash the amount of money spent on the initiative from 100 million, the amount proposed by the Commission, to 65 million ecu.

NEW rules to open basic voice telephony services to competition slipped through the Council without discussion. The Open Network Provision Directive sets rules or targets for phone services and would force national carriers to allow rivals to use their phone lines. Ministers agreed to include in the final text an amendment proposed by the European Parliament which would make operators compensate customers for poor service.

A LIST of giant cross-border telecoms projects to be partially funded by the EU has been agreed. The projects include computer networks and basic networks such as Integrated Services Digital Networks. The list, contained in the guidelines for telecoms Trans-European Networks, has been given provisional approval, pending the European Parliament's first reading of the draft decision.