A4-0121/94

Resolution on the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on satellite communications: the provision of - and access to - space segment capacity (COM(94)0210 - C4-0120/94)

The European Parliament,

-having regard to Title XII, Trans-European networks, of the Treaty establishing the European Community,

-having regard to the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament on satellite communications: the provision of - and access to - space segment capacity (COM(94)0210 - C4-0120),

-having regard to the relevant provisions of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinion of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A4-0121/94),

1.Welcomes the fundamental objectives defined in the communication;

2.Regrets that the Commission did not submit to Parliament a draft resolution with the communication, as it did when submitting its communication on satellite navigation services (COM(94)0248);

3.Calls on the Commission to attach a draft resolution to its pre-legislative communications in the future, so that the institutions involved in the Community's legislative process - the Council and Parliament - may comment on the project on an equal footing;

4.Calls on the Member States to take, on the basis of a common position, any measures in such international satellite organizations as Intelsat, Inmarsat and Eutelsat likely to ensure the non-discriminatory allocation of space segment capacity;

5.Considers it essential for the Member States to have a balanced common concept if orbit and related frequency resources are to be managed efficiently;

6.Believes that the Commission and the Member States must cooperate closely in the International Telecommunication Union in order to gear such a concept more closely to the market and competition;

7.Calls on the Commission to take account of both cultural and economic pluralism, which will ensure and increase diversity and the exchange of views in radio and individual communications;

8.Believes that the principle of open access to the satellite sector should apply equally to public enterprises partly or completely controlled by the national telecommunications organizations and to private operators and that neither must control the market in the provision of satellite-based services by using such protected distribution systems as coding, whether in television, interactive VSAT or individual services;

9.Concludes that there may be a need for a central supervisory authority to monitor all providers of space segment capacity in Europe, be they telecommunications organizations, consortia in which telecommunications organizations participate or entirely private operators, to ensure protection of access and fair competition in the Community;

10.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the parliaments of the Member States.