Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-13-Speech-2-289"
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"en.20040113.12.2-289"2
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".
Madam President, I assume that you want me to say something – I used to speak your language, but I have not done so for about 40 years!
In order to make it possible to use services offered in other Member States, the proposal also clarifies and strengthens the rights of users of services. It therefore makes it clear that those rights prevent Member States from imposing restrictions such as requiring authorisation to use services (for example of architects or builders from other Member States), or discriminatory tax rules making services from other EU countries more costly. The proposed directive clarifies the rights of patients by setting out, based on the case-law of the European Court of Justice, the conditions under which national social security systems must reimburse the costs of medical care received in other Member States.
The proposed directive seeks to create more cross-border service activity, which will give businesses new opportunities in new markets, so that they can grow and create more jobs. Increased competition will also be likely to reduce prices and help to disseminate best practice and encourage innovation. In particular, SMEs will greatly benefit from the improved legal certainty and increased opportunities for cross-border supply. The effect on the economy as a whole will be higher competitiveness and more and better jobs. Therefore, the proposal needs to be adopted, written into national law and implemented as quickly as possible. This means that it must get the highest political support from all the institutions involved.
The Commission is aware that, unfortunately, this proposal arrives too late to achieve first reading in this Parliament. However, given that it meets the European Parliament's request for a comprehensive approach to create a true internal market in services, I trust that Members will give it due consideration and start to discuss it in order to provide a sound basis for the new Parliament's work and show the way to the Council of Ministers. That is what I would like to say on the directive on services.
Now, very briefly, on the other subject, I should like to say that the Commission has decided today to challenge the Council conclusions in the European Court of Justice. This challenge will, however, concentrate exclusively on procedural elements and will not touch on the country-specific economic surveillance aspects of the Council conclusions. More details are available in a document literally just made public, with the reference number IP/04/35.
I have come to the House this evening to make two declarations: the first is on the Services Directive, which the Commission decided upon this afternoon; the other is a short announcement on behalf of the Commission, and in particular of my colleague Mr Solbes, on the strategy for economic policy coordination and surveillance.
I shall start with the Services Directive. It is with great pleasure that I can announce to you today that the Commission has adopted a proposal for a directive to create a real internal market in services. It is an ambitious but balanced and gradual proposal, which aims to set service businesses free of legal and administrative barriers to the development of cross-border activities. It is potentially the biggest boost to the internal market since its launch in 1993. It will improve the competitiveness not only of the services sector but also of the whole European economy, including the manufacturing sector.
The proposal is a major element in getting the Lisbon Agenda back on track. It is the result of a long process launched by the Commission's Services Strategy in December 2000. It addresses the internal market barriers identified in the Commission’s Report on the State of the Internal Market in Services in July 2002. The European Parliament was involved throughout the process and adopted supportive opinions on both these documents. I am therefore delighted that I can come to you first and present our proposed solution today.
The proposal responds to the European Parliament's call for a comprehensive proposal to ensure free movement of services by means of applying the country of origin principle, administrative cooperation and, where strictly necessary, harmonisation.
The proposed directive is comprehensive in that it covers all the services that are at present unable to benefit from the internal market because of legal or administrative barriers. It covers both the freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services. It will benefit a wide variety of services, including professional services, business services, security services, environmental services, distribution services, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants and entertainment, as well as health services. Only those services that are already covered by wide-ranging specific EU law, such as financial services, telecommunications and transport, are excluded.
In order to make it easier to establish a service business in another Member State, the proposal will cut red tape through a large-scale administrative simplification process. A number of restrictions on establishment, such as nationality requirements or 'economic needs tests', will be abolished. In addition, Member States will be obliged to set up electronic procedures and make available to service providers single points of contact dealing with authorisations and other formalities. Unnecessary authorisation procedures will be screened and removed; remaining authorisation schemes will be made more transparent and predictable, being based exclusively on objective criteria known in advance. Other restrictions, such as requirements that limit the number of outlets per head of population, or fixed tariffs, will also undergo a transparent process of screening and mutual evaluation.
In order to make it easier to provide services across borders, the proposed directive aims to implement in practice the country of origin principle, whereby once a service provider is operating legally in one Member State, it can provide its services in others without having to comply with further rules in those 'host' Member States. In order to underpin this principle, the proposal provides for enhanced administrative cooperation between Member States and for some basic, harmonised, EU-wide quality requirements. It will, for instance, require appropriate professional indemnity insurance for services giving rise to particular risks.
The proposed directive recognises the specific nature of the regulated professions and the particular role of self-regulation and calls on professional associations to establish European codes of conduct on professional ethics. It is complementary to and fully compatible with the proposed directive on the recognition of professional qualifications."@en1
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