Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-306"
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"en.20030923.9.2-306"2
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".
Mr President, political realism has led the Commission to conclude that it is not appropriate at this stage to modify its proposal of 1997. A formal modification of the Commission's proposal would significantly postpone the entry into force of the Directive, and might even endanger its adoption during this legislature.
I would like to thank the rapporteur for his good work.
But as the Council will be examining the proposed amendments in early October, the Commission will do its best to have the relevant amendments included in the Directive.
In that context, the Commission could agree in principle with amendments 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 12 and 13.
Regarding amendment 2, I would like to point out that it is my intention to make a dedicated proposal on this subject early next year.
The real issue behind amendment 4 is that of establishing a common definition for reference units in the Directive. The Commission is pursuing this goal in the Council's working group.
Furthermore, despite some sympathy with amendments 6, 9, 14 and 15, the Commission considers that reopening these issues might endanger the whole compromise. Therefore, the Commission regrets that it cannot support these amendments.
The Commission furthermore does not support amendments 5, 10, 11, 16, 17 or18
Thus far about the amendments. I should also like to make a few general remarks. Firstly, Members of Parliament will understand that this whole business is increasingly made difficult by the existence of the unanimity rule. The Commission has proposed very modest changes to the unanimity rule in the form of qualified majority voting in the areas of simplification, modernisation, co-operation against fraud, and the establishment of a harmonised tax basis for company taxation. However I am pessimistic as to the possibility of those very modest proposals being accepted. It is regrettable, but it is the reality.
Lastly, I would direct a remark towards Mrs Kauppi. Mrs Kauppi has said that hydrogen is a source of energy, but I am afraid that is not true. Yes, one can use hydrogen in cars and maybe in the future in aeroplanes, but in order to use hydrogen one must first get it. In order to produce hydrogen one needs electricity. Therefore, I am afraid that whatever the advantages of the so-called hydrogen economy – and the Commission is fully aware of these advantages – let us not forget that in order to get hydrogen one must produce it and that costs electricity, a lot of electricity."@en1
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