Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-293"
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"en.20030212.10.3-293"2
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". – Mr President, this is a very important topic, one of the bases on which the European Union rests.
This list is not exhaustive. We all know that the internal market covers a multitude of subjects. We are still open to ideas. I should like to work closely with Parliament in the coming months as our strategy takes shape.
I will end by endorsing the opening paragraph of the Harbour report which states that the internal market should be the top priority for this year’s Spring Summit. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Harbour on that and call on Parliament to do everything it can to ensure that this comes about.
Last November, I challenged Parliament to come up with bold new ideas for improving the internal market. The Harbour report more than meets that challenge.
Ten years of the internal market have given us 2.5 million extra jobs and EUR 900 billion, cumulatively, in extra wealth. But that is not enough.
Too many barriers are still holding us back. Enlargement makes it all the more urgent to clear the decks. As any engineer will tell you, if you add a couple of storeys to a building, which is what enlargement in essence will do, you must make sure that the foundations are sufficiently strong.
Hence the emphasis in the forthcoming medium-term Internal Market Strategy for the years 2003-2006. The emphasis in that medium-term Internal Market Strategy – a document that the Commission will present in April – is on going 'back to basics'.
Foremost among this move 'back to basics' is the matter of implementation and enforcement. I welcome Parliament's support for strengthening the Commission’s enforcement powers in the future IGC. The Harbour report also calls on the Commission to calculate the economic costs of transposition delays. I can see the attraction of that idea, but the transposition deficit is a moving target which reflects different directives with different economic impacts over time. However, I have asked my staff to look into the feasibility of making such a calculation and I will report back to you as soon as possible.
It is not yet as easy to trade within the internal market as it is to trade within a Member State. Borders still exist, not perhaps in the real world, but certainly in the minds of national officials who often do not yet think or act in a European way. We may need to put some disciplines in place to get a change in behaviour. As you may know, the Commission is giving very high priority to making a proposal for a horizontal instrument to remove barriers in the services market by the end of the year. We are also considering ways of making trade in goods easier.
EU citizens and businesses deserve more and better information about their internal market rights. Mr Harbour’s report calls for a second Internal Market Forum as a means of connecting with citizens. I welcome the idea of a second forum and I shall be honoured to take part - if you invite me, of course!
Removing tax obstacles is another key priority. I welcome Parliament’s support for the Commission’s communications on the taxation of persons and passenger cars, a subject dear to the heart of Mr Vatanen, who spoke to me at length about that. I respect his energy in pursuing that subject. The Commission will bring forward proposals this year to modernise and simplify VAT rules so as to reduce the burden on businesses, particularly on SMEs."@en1
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