Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-048"
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"en.20000119.2.3-048"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, from the rich holds of this ship of fifteen oarsmen, the appropriate European symbol of the Portuguese Presidency, please allow me to highlight the European digital challenge.
For me, the digital revolution is, amongst many other things, above all, a revolution in the system and culture of distributing goods and services. This means that we need to establish positions on certain specific issues which are contained in your programme.
Firstly, we need to reflect anew on the balance between public and private regulations, on the balance between the law and what is normally called ‘soft law’. The reason is that in digital time – as someone said the other day at the Madrid Conference – one year is equivalent to two months, and four years, which is a reasonable time for the handling of a normal directive, is equivalent to 24 years. That is excessive.
Secondly, we need to give consumers and small and medium-sized businesses confidence, and create a climate and culture of taking controlled risks, although this may seem contradictory. For consumers, we have to implement excellent Commission initiatives, based on Tampere, in the field of the extrajudicial settling of disputes, but we also have to treat consumers as adults. For small and medium-sized businesses, we have to reinforce the dialogue which you are proposing, with companies and citizens, within the framework of the internal market. But there are also very specific things, such as taking a clear stance, in accordance with business culture, on Article 15 of the new Brussels and Lugano legislation, without which we could spoil this great project of an ‘E-Europe’.
Lastly – and here I agree with what Mr Cox said – we have the challenge of transatlantic dialogue. We will not achieve anything if we do not lessen the distance which separates us from the United States, in coordination with them. Therefore, on this issue, I believe we need tremendous coordination, tremendous cooperation and, of course, tremendous drive.
“The ship is setting sail” – that is an idea from Portuguese navigators since the Middle Ages. I believe we are going to spend the next six months in the hands of good helmsmen."@en1
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