Plenary speech on radio spectrum policy

Madam President, at times when many people are sceptical about Europe and wonder what it can concretely deliver to them, businesses, cultural and economic development, it is nice to be able to bring some good news. Radio spectrum, like any move towards a true European digital single market, is such a subject. Radio spectrum is scarce but it offers a number of opportunities and it is essential to make Europe a global leader in this information society. This political agreement will pave the way for a development that will allow the EU to take the global lead on broadband speeds, mobility coverage and capacity. It will be a crucial building block in creating a flexible and coordinated European spectrum policy where the exponential growth of mobile data traffic can be met by future reallocations and where inefficient use of spectrum belongs to the past. This policy should help to create a true pan-European telecoms market. It is unfortunate that the European Parliament was not able to achieve the extension of the allocations of unlicensed spectrum to allow for greater use of wi-fi. To preserve the European level playing field, and to take our opportunities in a highly competitive global economy, we should avoid a situation where newer and better technologies are at a disadvantage simply because they came later.