Erika Mann, on behalf of the PSE Group. – Madam President, it is fascinating to follow this debate – colleagues have already laid out the main topics and the Commissioner has made her statement – but to see that the Council is completely absent tells us a lot about the way we sometimes operate in the European Union. This is completely unacceptable. We are experiencing one of the gravest crises ever in the European Union and worldwide, and talking about a topic that is so relevant and so important for job creation – one of the areas where we still have stability to a large degree – and to see that the Council is not reflecting and debating with us today to my eyes tells us a lot. I hope that we will see the next Council Presidency here more often, because we cannot continue to operate in this way.

Let me make two points. I want to thank the shadow rapporteur, Pilar del Castillo Vera, who has done great work. It was difficult, and it was not clear at the very beginning that we would make it and that we would have greater Europeanisation in this area. We seem to have found a way that is acceptable and that will help the national regulators to work together and to learn from each other. This will be a good breakthrough, especially for the new Member States.

Let me touch on two points, which I am glad the Commissioner mentioned: investment in new infrastructure, which will have a new framework and work under competition rules which, although different, will allow investment to flow in this area; and the guidelines which will very soon be published for NGAs. I hope that those guidelines will follow the philosophy established in this House, from which I hope the Commissioner will not depart.

On the universal service part, I hope that the Commissioner will find a way of ensuring that the telecom operators, which will now profit from new investment possibilities will, for their part, invest to make sure that all citizens have access to broadband in the future. I hope this will be covered by the Universal Service Directive, which is to come in the second half of the year.

My last point would be to urge this House, my colleagues and the Commission – and the Council hopefully as well – to look into those areas where we have found compromises, but with which we are not completely happy. This touches on Internet issues, such as the way States can intervene if they think citizens are unlawfully accessing Internet content, which is something we call ‘Internet sparen’ in German, and network management. I hope we will find a way to look into those issues during the second half of the year and find the right framework in order to build a greater consensus between us and the citizens, who are depending greatly on us.