The newly-elected European Parliament has wasted no time in flexing its muscles and exercising the new powers conferred on it by the misbegotten Maastricht Treaty – and the most prominent victim of its move looks certain to be Sprint Corp and its chosen Euro-partners France Telecom and Deutsche Bundespost Telekom. The strong continental protectionist tendency in the Parliament threw out the Open Network Provision rules on speech telephony as approved by the Council of Ministers – previously the ruling European body, but now subject to Parliamentary ratification. The Parliament did support the thrust of the directive but wanted amendments to increase consumer protection, and is demanding representation on the committee to be set up to implement aspects of the legislation.Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann warned darkly that it would take at least six months to negotiate a compromise between the Parliament and the Council, effectively freezing any proposed alliances until then.
