Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-28-Speech-3-112"
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"en.20040128.9.3-112"2
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"Mr President, I too would like to start by thanking most warmly everyone involved in the work that we are now bringing to a conclusion – as the rapporteur mentioned, we spent four years working together on it, and it was, for me, one of the best experiences I have had in the European Parliament, involving getting to grips with a great deal of highly complex material. Let me thank the Commission, and also the Commissioner, who again reminded us today how very important this legislative project is in economic terms. When getting to grips with one formulation or another, one is all too ready to lose sight of the whole and no longer quite see how very important this project is, and I think it is vital that we should remind ourselves of that as things draw to a close. I also want to thank Mr Zappalà, the rapporteur, who has had to be very patient with me as I expressed what I sought. Opinions may differ about the Italian Presidency’s record, and different people in this House will assess it in different ways, but it can certainly chalk up as one of its credits the successful completion of this conciliation procedure, the result of which I will of course, tomorrow, be advising my group to adopt. I am not doing that half-heartedly, merely because it is a compromise, but because I am convinced that 90% of our result is very good.
I would like to highlight a number of points that were of particular concern to us in Parliament and can be said to be enshrined in the outcome. We of course share the Commission’s goal of simplification and modernisation, which I see as having been largely achieved. It was important to us that electronic procedures should be made easier and electronic auctions introduced. When it came to the threshold values, we had differences of opinion. I regard the slight increase in the threshold values from what they had been previously as a good solution, especially because this means that smaller contracting authorities, such as municipalities, do not have to put projects in their area out to tender right across Europe, whilst the internal market continues to apply to larger projects.
I also see it as significant that it has been possible to rethink the Utilities Directive, and, in particular, that we have succeeded in transferring postal services to it from their traditional directive, for this had been one of this House’s concerns, and that individual provisions for many sectors are now somewhat less stringent. I believe that sheltered workshops are now well protected; these are an important area, as are the joint purchasing bodies that more and more Member States are setting up, and, of course, all those provisions – particularly in view of enlargement, to which the rapporteur referred – that can be said to clarify the application of the locally-applicable provisions on labour law, social security, taxation and the environment.
The conciliation procedure gave attention to, and was speedily able to resolve, the issue of national legislation on the award of contracts, which must, in future, be accessible on a website. The Internet is an important source of information for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, and it is intended that it should facilitate more cross-border transactions.
Reference has already been made to award criteria, which were without doubt the stumbling-block right up to the end of the conciliation procedure, and I find the result that we have achieved perfectly acceptable. We have secured the position of the case-law of the European Court of Justice, which has developed over a lengthy period of time. What we learned from Helsinki – and, thank heaven, on later occasions – has now been incorporated into law. I see this as very important, particularly in terms of legal certainty, and perhaps this legislative package expresses to some degree the value we attach to the case-law of the ECJ in this area.
In conclusion, it only remains to me to appeal to the Member States to transpose this directive without delay and to do so in line with the new conception of it in order to create a real internal market for public-sector contracts, for more competition, and more transparency, but also for advances in the fields of environmental and social policy."@en1
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