Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-13-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20030313.1.4-023"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, speaking this morning on behalf of my group in the debate on consumers and consumer protection, I, like many of my fellow Members, would like to say once again that, although we can adhere to the European Commission’s objectives in this area – high level of protection, effective application of rules and effective participation of consumer organisations – we must once again point out that the proposals made are still far too vague and not specific enough.
That is why I fully agree with the proposals made by Mr Whitehead and Mrs Patrie, in particular with regard to safety, transport, chemical substances, e-commerce and the provision of prior information in all cases in order to allow, where necessary, appropriate and effective defence and recourse mechanisms to be activated. I would also like to mention specifically the readability of the ecolabel and, in particular, the need for highly comprehensive information on GMOs which, as you are all aware, are a contentious issue for us. Lastly, I would like to stress the need for the Toys Directive and control of the CE mark.
As I was rapporteur on these issues a few years ago, I know that the Toys Directive needs to be revised urgently and that, due to insufficient controls, the CE mark has in many cases become devoid of all meaning. I have also written to the Commission several times on this matter, but I regret to say that I have not received a satisfactory response. Incidentally, at this stage of the debate on consumer protection and policy, I would also like to express very clearly two concerns in the form of basic criticisms. My first concern is that, whatever their advantages, consumer protection policies are too closely linked to, and therefore overly dependent on, the objective of accelerated creation of a single market. These policies are only rarely objectives in themselves and tend, for the most part, to be a result of free competition. My second concern is that these policies are frequently, if not always, a pretext for erasing, suffocating, or even abolishing the concept of public service, even though this is far broader than consumer protection as it applies in the long term, which involves solidarity and land use planning, in particular through pricing and access conditions. In some countries and some political groups, the best upholders of consumer protection are often those who do most harm to public services, acting in the name of free competition and the dominance of the private sector.
This morning, I therefore wanted to point out these fundamental differences or even divergences, while welcoming the efforts made by the European Commission and supporting our rapporteurs’ proposals."@en1
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