Julia Reda, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, the Telecom Package has undergone quite a transformation since it was first proposed in 2016. First, it was based on the strange notion that the best way to get companies to invest in broadband internet was to reduce competition and to offer deregulation in return for investment. Even the most conservative economists would predict the exact opposite, namely that competition drives innovation and doesn’t stifle it.

The Verts/ALE Group has been at the forefront of resisting any deregulation agenda and ensuring that telecom regulators have the necessary powers to regulate. The final deal, thanks to Parliament, is much more balanced than the first draft and is much more ambitious in the field of consumer rights. With the Electronic Communications Code, we’re making real improvements to the transparency of contracts, to the ability to take your phone number with you when you switch providers, and to ensuring that everyone has affordable internet access, also recognising community networks. We are making real improvements to people’s security, too, by introducing systems that allow people to receive automatic notifications on their phones in the case of disasters.

There’s a reason why telecom companies have quite a terrible reputation among consumers. Many people in Europe have the choice between just a small number of providers, and often all the available options are bad. Bad surprises, in the form of ridiculously high phone bills, slow speeds and difficulties in switching providers, are still common.

When we told Europeans years ago that we would abolish roaming, they thought that would mean that wherever you called in Europe, and wherever you used the internet, you would pay the same price. What they soon had to learn was that calling somebody in another EU country is not roaming. That’s an intra—EU call – something completely different – where higher prices are considered okay. So it is a great success for Parliament that the proposals from the Greens and the left to abolish charges for intra—EU calls have made it into the final deal, at least in the form of a price cap. That will bring European consumers one step closer to a real single market.

A missed opportunity in the Telecom Package is that of turning the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) into a fully—fledged EU regulator. The BEREC Regulation makes some modest improvements, but this Parliament and national governments failed to take the important step of creating an EU regulator with all the powers needed. It’s a missed opportunity because global threats to our open internet are becoming bigger. It’s not just that the US has abolished Federal net neutrality rules. It’s not just that, in Paris this week, Mr Macron said that net neutrality must not stand in the way of internet regulation.

No, Mr Macron, net neutrality is internet regulation, and it’s precisely the kind of regulation we need to strengthen. Although the European Union has enshrined net neutrality in law, it has failed to provide a clear and unequivocal ban on zero-rating. The consequence is that today, according to BEREC’s own figures, zero—rating still exists in most EU countries and we need to take further steps to ensure that an open internet is available to everybody. I hope that this Telecom Package will be a step in the right direction.