Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-20-Speech-3-075"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020320.6.3-075"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, once again we have a paper from the Commission on the table, on which I merely wish to say that I am astonished time and again by the consummate skill with which Commission officials can fill twenty-eight pages without saying anything of real substance. This at least has the strategic advantage of ensuring that they cannot subsequently be compelled to honour their commitments. May I say, Commissioner De Palacio, that these remarks naturally do not apply to the chapters for which you are responsible but to other chapters in this and other papers. Nevertheless, this is what we have now, and so I believe we ought to comment on it. As far as the single market is concerned, I can say on the basis of my experience of past years in this House that we are still far from having a single market which works truly effectively in every area.
Major deficits still exist. I believe that the Commission should focus on the elimination of these deficits as one of its top priorities for 2003. In the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, we have just been debating the Directive concerning the distance marketing of consumer financial services at second reading stage. It has emerged once again that insurance services are one of those areas in which there is still no functioning single market but only compartmentalised national markets. As I said, there are still considerable deficits.
The Commission’s reports have shown that we have the same problem in other sectors of the economy too with the implementation of freedom to provide services and freedom of establishment. We have a report from the Commission that has already been discussed in committee and will no doubt soon have further repercussions, a report which deals with specific deficits in the realm of freedom to provide services. Time does not permit me to go into the various specific examples, but I would urge the Commission to continue the systematic pursuit of this approach and to ensure that we ultimately have a genuine functioning single European market.
Let me mention one last point that was also discussed this morning at the meeting with members of the national parliaments. In January, Parliament adopted a report on further steps towards convergence in the realm of civil and commercial law. May I ask the Commission, and especially the Commissioners with the relevant portfolios, to forge ahead with these efforts and to present a Green Paper or White Paper as soon as possible to give us a firm idea of the direction in which we are heading. This, I believe, is quite crucial as a means of ensuring that the single market not only exists and operates to the advantage of big business but that consumers and smaller businesses also have the opportunity to make full use of the options offered by the single market. We are building the single market first and foremost for the people of Europe, not for the sole benefit of large companies. Hence my plea to forge ahead with increased vigour and increased energy, even in the face of the opposition which, as experience shows, is always encountered in some Member States."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples