Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-19-Speech-1-121"
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"en.20040419.10.1-121"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, the Commission has made a draft Regulation on the codecision procedure for Parliament and the Council, the aim of which is to guarantee free access to the gas transmission networks throughout the EU. Some Member States have had problems implementing earlier decisions, and the Commission has therefore used a strategic weapon, which is to say a regulation, to guarantee access to gas networks in all countries, especially when transporting gas across borders from one country to another, but also within countries.
The draft Regulation is mainly based on the work of the Madrid Forum, which was attended by different market participants. They thought they were drafting a recommendation there that would guarantee access to the gas transmission markets on a voluntary basis. Some of those that participated might feel let down, as a voluntary commitment was altered to a compulsory regulation in the Commission’s reading.
There was not enough time at the Madrid Forum to discuss all the details regarding access to the networks, and new laws are to be drafted in the future under the comitology procedure without any consultation procedure involving the participants at the Madrid Forum. It is therefore understandable if some market participants are worried about how their interests are to be taken into account in the future.
During the committee discussions the Commission representatives said it was the Commission’s intention that the participants at the Madrid Forum would also be heard in the future when the detailed regulations for implementing the Regulation were being drafted. As the Madrid Forum is not a legal body, it is the opinion of the Commission that consultations with it cannot be recorded in the text of the Regulation. As rapporteur, however, I think it would be appropriate if this undertaking to consult the various parties were also recorded in the minutes of Parliament’s plenary session. I would expect this to be done when the Commissioner makes her next speech or before the final votes.
After a number of votes on the matter our committee adopted the position that there are good arguments in favour of establishing the Regulation and that the Commission proposal should furthermore be adopted in principle by this Parliament. In the votes more than 40 amendments were accepted as a basis for first reading, and Parliament wishes to hold talks on them with representatives of the Commission and the Council some time in the future when the draft Regulation is being finally agreed. I wish to thank everyone for their excellent levels of cooperation whilst the item for debate was being prepared. Although we were in disagreement with one another and had our different interests to consider, I think we managed to work very objectively and achieve an excellent end result.
I await the Commissioner’s speech, which will hopefully reconfirm the Commission’s commitment to include consultation with the participants of the Madrid Forum in the future."@en1
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