Activites

• 1995/12/30 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 1995/62
  • OJ L 321 30.12.1995, p. 0006
• 1995/12/13 Final act signed
• 1995/12/13 End of procedure in Parliament
• #1888
• 1995/11/27 Council Meeting
• 1995/10/26 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T4-0511/1995 summary

    The European Parliament adopted the recommendation for second reading by Mrs Imelda READ (PSE, UK) on voice telephony with two amendments to the Council's common position: - the first related to comitology and referred to the "modus vivendi" of 20 December 1994 concerning the implementing measures for acts adopted under the codecision procedure; - the second related to increased consumer protection: it stipulated that the national regulatory authorities should ensure that compensation and/or refund arrangements were in place in cases where contracted service quality levels were not met. Any exceptions to this rule should be justified by the telecommunications organisation or organisations concerned. �

• 1995/10/25 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament summary

    Following the question by the rapporteur, Mrs READ, as to whether or not the Commission was prepared to support the compromise between Parliament and the Council on consumer protection, Commissioner PAPOUTSIS confirmed that the Commission fully espoused the new compromise in the form of Amendment No 3, which avoided the conciliation procedure and speeded up progress towards approval of the Directive. However, Amendment No 2 on the initial text of the same Article 7(1) could lead to conciliation that would be unlikely to result in approval of the Directive by the Council. Finally, as regards Amendment No 1, the Commission accepted the principle of an explanatory note on comitology in the form of a new recital.

• 1995/09/27 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A4-0231/1995
• 1995/07/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• #1864
• 1995/07/10 Council Meeting
  • 08280/1995 summary

    The Council's common position incorporated a number of amendments to the Commission proposal to take account of the fact that several Member States had already liberalised the provision of voice telephony services and to anticipate the complete liberalisation of telecommunications services and infrastructures on 1 January 1998 (with transitional periods for some Member States). The amendments related to the following points: - A new recital indicated that certain Member States had already abolished exclusive rights for the provision of voice telephony services but called on the Member States to ensure that all users could subscribe to harmonised voice telephony services in accordance with the directive; - The article on the publication of and access to information was amended to enable national authorities to establish an appropriate deadline for the publication of changes in existing service offerings and information on new offerings. The actual deadline would be set in accordance with the situation of the market and the nature of the changes; - From now on, all compensation and/or refund arrangements to be provided for the user (if the contracted service quality levels were not met) should be included in the user's contract; - With regard to the principles governing financial accounts, the directive stipulated the audit requirements to be met by the EP and Council during the conciliation procedure; - When required, the Commission would submit to the EP and Council a proposal to enable them to decide, by 1 January 1998, on the revision of this directive to adapt it to market requirements; - Finally, the Council opted for a type IIIa regulatory committee procedure rather than the advisory committee procedure. �

• #1854
• 1995/06/13 Council Meeting
• 1995/05/16 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0197/1995 summary

    The European Parliament approved this proposal for a directive without amendments. �

• 1995/04/19 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0090/1995
• 1995/04/07 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1995/02/01 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(1994)0689 summary

    The Commission presented a proposal for a directive on this subject in September 1992, but the European Parliament and the Council were unable to agree on a joint text, mainly because of comitology problems (powers of the committee to assist the Commission with the implementation of the directive). The European Parliament therefore rejected the Council's common position in July 1994. The comitology problem has since been resolved in the form of a "modus vivendi" between the institutions, to apply pending the revision of the Treaty in 1996 and, in its new proposal, just as in its initial proposal, the Commission proposes an advisory committee. Apart from the articles relating to comitology, the Commission has remained as close as possible to the text adopted by the European Parliament and the Council during the conciliation procedure. The objective of the proposal is to: - define the rights of telephone service users; - guarantee open and non-discriminatory access to the telephone network for all users, including service providers offering competitive services; - increase the supply of vocal telephony services in the Community. The directive mainly covers the following aspects: - non-discriminatory service for all users, i.e. availability of technical access, charges, quality of service, customer information; - right of the user to have a new telephone line installed within a time limit fixed officially; - right of the user to itemised billing and facility for user to take recourse to independent procedures to resolve billing disputes; - need to guarantee that telephone services remain affordable, to be monitored by the national regulatory authorities; - transparent, properly published charges, transparent cost accounting system; - reduction in charges for certain users, special charges for certain social groups, for certain types of call or for certain periods of the day; - provision of telephone directories and directory enquiry services; - installation and availability of public call boxes; - promotion of the creation of a single type of telephone card which can be used in all the Member States; - aid for certain categories of people with special needs, such as the disabled; - introduction of pan-European telephone numbering systems with a view to facilitating the use of freephone services; - guarantee that users will have the same rights and the same legal protection as for other goods and services.�

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(1994)0689
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A4-0090/1995
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0197/1995
• Council position published: 08280/1995
• Committee recommendation tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A4-0231/1995
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T4-0511/1995
• : Directive 1995/62
• : OJ L 321 30.12.1995, p. 0006

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)