Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-14-Speech-2-199"
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"en.20060214.26.2-199"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I have just two minutes – enough time for a few bullet points. Following the public debate, one could get the impression that freedom to provide services was something that this directive had invented, but it does in fact have the force of law. The problem is that it is a law by which many countries do not abide; instead, they have erected barriers and use every kind of chicanery to frustrate it. All that in fact needs to be done is for this protectionism, which is what this chicanery is all about, to be done away with, and this directive provides us with the appropriate legal means to do that.
The political and economic integration of Europe in the services sector, which accounts for 70% of GDP, will be of benefit to all. It is not, however, of crucial importance to the big global players or in terms of shareholder value, and on that point I would refer back to what was said by President Barroso and by Mr Watson. The big global players do not need the directive, for they have branches and agencies everywhere, through which they can offer their services, but it certainly is crucial to small and medium-sized businesses. It also offers benefits to private individuals in the shape of more choice and freedom, especially to workers, in that it will bring more employment, and employment – that is to say, more jobs – is the best kind of social policy.
Some are now using a Commissioner who is no longer here to defend himself as a pretext for conjuring with terms like free-market liberal, free-market radical and neo-liberal, all of which is a load of scaremongering that gets us nowhere. What matters is the text, for it is with that that the crucial progress will be made. I, too, would have liked to see rather more – that is to say, fewer derogations – emerging from the votes in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and in the Legal Affairs Committee, which I represent here today.
There are a few things, though, that I do regard as decisive. Firstly, nothing is being done to make the present situation worse. Secondly, progress is an absolute certainty; the only question is whether it might perhaps not be enough. Thirdly, nobody is being prevented from taking the next steps later, when the time is ripe. It may indeed be that that time will come sooner than we think."@en1
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