As Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society, I was responsible within the government for telecommunications, the audiovisual sector and the information society.

17. Welcomes the Commission’s proposals for a data breach notification system in the e-privacy directive, which should furthermore be applied in a consistent manner in all areas where data protection is required; Calls for a revision and simplification of the current personal data processing notification system beyond the telecom sector to serious data breaches, with a view to ensure that data processing requirements do not place excessive burdens on data controllers and to put an end to diverging national requirements in this field; calls for an extension of the personal data breach notification system beyond the telecom sector to ser ...[+++]ious data breaches, emphasising the importance of an uniform system for notification of violations;

Relevant authorities responsible for large transport/energy projects underway should take into account the needs of telecommunications infrastructure and make the appropriate planning and budgetary provisions on the basis of existing infrastructure.

In future we shall want to give the competition mergers department, more work, because the market should play an even bigger role in telecoms than it does at the moment.

(41) Whereas it is desirable to establish a committee bringing together parties directly involved in the implementation of regulation of radio equipment and telecommunications terminal equipment, in particular the national conformity assessment bodies and national bodies responsible for market surveillance, in order to assist the Commission in achieving a harmonised and proportionate application of the provisions so as to meet the needs of the market and the public at larg ...[+++]e; whereas representatives of telecommunications operators, users, consumers, manufacturers and service providers should be consulted where appropriate;

(47) Whereas where a message containing personal data is transmitted by means of a telecommunications or electronic mail service, the sole purpose of which is the transmission of such messages, the controller in respect of the personal data contained in the message will normally be considered to be the person from whom the message originates, rather than the person offering the transmission services; whereas, nevertheless, those offering such services will normally be considered controllers in respect of the processing of the additional personal data necessary for the operation of the service;