Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-317"
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"en.20050223.19.3-317"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, I am pleased to inform you that overall, we are satisfied with the report adopted by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. I can assure you, Mrs Bresso, that we will once again be giving the package of amendments, all nineteen of them, our full backing. We have all been working on unfair commercial practices for a while and as progress was made, starting with the Green Paper up to second reading now, we have become increasingly aware of the need to allow the internal market to be not only an area in which the free movement of goods and services simply occurs, but also to turn it into an area in which this free movement occurs in the knowledge that all is done in accordance with fair practices.
It is, of course, not the case that so far, or as long as this directive is not in force, everything would have been done unfairly. The Member States assumed their responsibilities at a time that was appropriate to them in the past, but we have noticed that, for as long as those Member States organise that protection differently in each country, we will have a problem within the internal market, namely that this market lacks the confidence of the unassured consumers who dare not look across the border, or the confidence of the enterprises, mainly the smallest enterprises, that hardly dare take a step across the border because they too are unfamiliar with the rules on the other side of it.
I think that the work we have done collectively is sound. It is a very balanced document because it offers a high level of consumer protection, as the treaty expects from us, but it also provides maximum legal certainty for the trader, which means that we can strike a perfect balance. We are also for the first time taking a careful step towards full harmonisation. I think we can do this because the level of consumer protection is so high. This is all thanks to perfect cooperation with Members from other groups, the Council and Commission. I should like to thank all those involved, because it is thanks to this openness, transparency, constructive attitude that we have achieved so much and that we are able to complete the dossier at second reading. Mrs Bresso, I would, of course, like to thank you, in particular, for your commitment.
Although this proposal only deals with ‘B to C’, that is, ‘business to consumer’ relations, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats is nevertheless pleased with the fact that this legislative document explicitly mentions that when an entrepreneur establishes that a competitor contravenes this directive, that that can be used by that entrepreneur to turn it into a case of unfair commercial practices, a case of distortion of competition, albeit in accordance with the national law of the country in question. We are also satisfied that we have, at long last, managed to establish among ourselves who the reference consumer is, that we take the average consumer as a point of reference but that we do this without losing sight of the weak consumer. I think that in that area too, we have struck a particularly good balance.
All that remains for us to do is to hope that the Council will set to work promptly to give the initiative its official stamp of approval and that the Member States will not hesitate to ensure that everything is transposed into national legislation within the prescribed timeframe."@en1
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