Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-19-Speech-1-068"

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"Mr President, Commissioners, I should first like to mention the proposal on cooperation between consumer authorities, which is extremely welcome, and I think that the rapporteur has done an exceedingly good job. It is both astonishing and depressing how much energy some Members have put into attempts to water this proposal down. I cannot conceive of a situation in which everyone but the consumer has rights in the internal market. That has been truly depressing, but I welcome this proposal, and hope that a large majority in Parliament will support the compromise proposal drawn up by Mrs Gebhardt. On the subject of Mr Wuermeling’s report on credit for consumers, I must say that I welcome the fact that we are having the debate today and that we have managed to make a good deal of progress. As previous speakers have said, improvements are needed, however, because otherwise there is a risk of the directives diluting the rights that consumers already have. Earlier on, a speaker mentioned the actual annual percentage rate of charge, and in this case, too, the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party and I should like to see a broader definition. The right to earlier repayment must also be improved. I do not think that the rapporteur’s compromise proposal goes far enough in this respect. As I often do in these debates, I should just like to mention the right to number portability in the telecommunications sector, which has given consumers important rights. In my home country, costs have fallen by 7% over the past year, and I think that the right to repayment has been a significant contributory factor. I also think that better information on credit cards is needed, and that the exclusions in some amendments are not really desirable. Finally, in my opinion, joint and several liability is really needed in order to develop the internal market and afford consumers protection when new products are placed on the market. I should also like to mention here something that happened in my home country. A new low-cost company went bankrupt, and only those consumers who had paid by credit card had any kind of protection. This also goes to show that this aspect is necessary for consumers when markets are developed."@en1

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