Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-16-Speech-3-157"
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"en.20020116.11.3-157"2
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"Mr President, it is a happy coincidence that you have taken the chair this afternoon for it permits me to say with what pride it is that I share with you a constituency under our present electoral arrangements as a fellow Member for Scotland. You have brought credit on our constituency in the dignified and splendid way you have conducted yourself over recent weeks and we are very pleased with that.
In that constituency, as you well know, it is not taken for granted that what is publicly provided or done is bad and only what is privately done is good. Nor does the Commission take that view. But, as Mrs Wallis has just said, this debate focuses on the very question of what decisions are properly taken by the public authorities, by democratic procedures on the basis of public choice, and what must then reasonably be left to the market to deal with.
It is crucial for that dividing line to be got right. Mrs Hautala asked a question which the Commissioner must answer when replying to this debate today. It is a question which can also be addressed to Mr Zappalà, who says that we should only take economic conditions into account, not, for example, environmental or social ones. If Helsinki or Edinburgh became seriously polluted with diesel fumes, that would give rise to costs. Somebody would have to pay to clean them up eventually. To say that is a non-economic cost is simply an odd kind of economics. So we turn the thing round: we ask who shall decide if the streets of Helsinki or the streets of Edinburgh need environmentally friendly and sustainable buses? Who can best take that decision? Is it best taken in Brussels? Is it best taken in Strasbourg by this Parliament? Is it best taken in London? No, it is best taken in Edinburgh or in Helsinki.
We need a decision of that kind to be taken locally. Of course, we do not want that decision to lead to unfair consequences. It must be open and transparent. Who can come and bid for this contract and on what terms can they obtain it? That is fine, but do not exclude the local authority, the people of a region, from saying themselves what standards they demand of those who serve them. If that is to be ruled out by European law, Europe will not grow in popularity among its citizens. We must have this kind of clear responsibility for the public good taken by public authorities. I would like to hear the Commission's reply to that point."@en1
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