Mr President, about eight years ago I happened to be in a developing country, and as one does in one's hotel bedroom, I switched on the television set and watched the local news. There were eight items on the news, and it was a politician's dream. For those of us in the European Parliament who have great difficulty in getting our speeches covered in the national media this was a dream. The President's activities from the time he had his breakfast in the morning until he went to bed tired at night took up seven items on the news. The final item was a brief mention that there had been a bit of an explosion in Chernobyl. Otherwise, the people of that country knew nothing about anything else except this one man, who was in power in their country. Naturally, as a democrat I thought this could never happen in Europe, but now I ask myself, could it? We really have to ask ourselves, and that is what we are doing today.

I have been a Member of this Parliament for ten years, and we have had endless discussions about the topic we are discussing this evening. Parliament is on record as having demanded action on the question of media concentration two years ago. I recognize the realities of the market place have changed since then. Regulation of media companies is still needed to ensure pluralism, but European media companies must be free to compete aggressively with the US and Japanese giants. I would urge colleagues to remember that this is an industry with enormous growth and employment potential for all our citizens, and we cannot stifle that potential. However, we do want pluralism, we want variety, we want to hear the uncomfortable, dissenting voices. The truth is that when it came to the crunch, the Commission - and it is not just the Commissioner here today but some of his colleagues too - could not stand the political heat, and it was not the political heat from Members of this Parliament: it was the political heat fro

m people who were not in this Parliament. The Commissioner told us last week that he never favoured a directive. However, I have seen early drafts of the Commission communication on the subject where the Commission clearly endorses the need for a directive at EU level on media ownership. What on earth happened to make you change your minds? We can only guess, and I greatly fear it may have been political pressure at the very highest level.

Of all the European institutions, Parliament recognizes the political realities. We know how careful the Commission must be when dealing with the situation in Italy. We know how difficult it would be to take on the big media groups like Kirch and Springer in Germany and News International in the UK. But my message to the Commissioner is that he should either confront the problem, if there is one, and take action, or just announce that he will not be taking action. He should not, however, duck the issue by announcing further consultations. This only damages the image of the Commission and the European institutions generally.