Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-15-Speech-1-097"
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"en.20031215.8.1-097"2
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"Mr President, I must confess that I have found it hard to speak in this debate and I would, in fact, start by remarking that we must all bear in mind the words of Mrs Lulling. Above all, however, we must consider the enormous effort made by Commissioner Bolkestein in order to complete the internal market, which is absolutely crucial to European integration and also to Europe’s economic recovery.
I therefore believe that this Commission initiative basically makes sense, but unfortunately, the European Parliament should not give its support to it just yet, because such a move, in isolation, would add little to the real discussion, which concerns the crucial liberalisation of the postal services sector. At this stage, given the current structure of the market, the Commission proposal could lead to various unwanted effects, the most perverse of which would surely be the widespread increase in the price of postal services for citizens, without this yielding any immediate benefit. Not even the proposals for amendment and there is no guarantee that they will be adopted would prevent this.
It is indeed sometimes legitimate to sacrifice this benefit in the short term, especially in the case of public services, although this must only be done if this interest will be safeguarded in the medium and long term, with the clear benefits that this provides. This does not, unfortunately, appear to be the case before us or at least it is not clear that the proposal accepts this fundamental principle.
The postal services sector has been exempt from VAT since 1977, a time when, it is true, the sector was dominated by State monopolies, which meant that competition was practically non-existent. Despite the changes that have taken place since then, there is absolutely no basis for the idea that this area of public service provision now operates in an open market. And yet, this is the only situation in which the State would be justified in exerting its exclusive power for political regulation without having to resort to tax or other types of incentives that guarantee social effectiveness. If, therefore, we acknowledge that upholding the current status quo for a long time to come could harm the much-needed development of this sector, we must also accept that this proposal alone will not eliminate or reduce existing distortions of competition, especially given the diversity of VAT rates still being applied in the Union.
Rejecting this initiative can, therefore, only be seen as a recommendation to the Commission to include the proposal in the framework of a broader debate on the total liberalisation of the sector, ensuring that the services provided are completely effective, without overcharging citizens who use the service from the outset."@en1
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