Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-16-Speech-4-164"
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"en.20060216.17.4-164"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like firstly to thank the rapporteur, Mr Letta, and all of the members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs for the excellent work they have done on the proposed Regulation on this type of statistic.
Nevertheless, before I finish, I would like to stress two factors to the honourable Members, in the hope that you will reconsider your position on these three amendments: 1, 2 and 9.
Firstly, account must be taken of the existing agreement amongst the institutions to set the definitive parameters for the compilation of data, once the results of the pilot studies are known, by means of the codecision procedure. In this way, Parliament will have full capacity, together with the Council, to play its role as legislator in the essential aspects of the implementation of this Regulation.
Secondly, I would like to point out that the current Austrian Presidency has expressed its political will to reach a satisfactory agreement with Parliament on the review of the rules on comitology. As you are well aware, a compromise in this field that will reflect more fairly Parliament’s legitimate aspirations to play its role as legislator fully is within sight.
Under these circumstances, Mr President, while repeating, of course, that the Commission is willing to keep Parliament fully informed at all times of the work of the different committees, I hope that this Parliament’s vote will facilitate an agreement on this Regulation at first reading.
I would like, in particular, to emphasise the fact that, in its work, Parliament has stressed the need to make the data provided for in this Regulation available as soon as possible. There is no need for me to remind you that our most direct competitors, the United States and Japan, have had detailed information about their companies’ external investments for more than twenty years, and this puts their governments and economic actors at a considerable advantage compared to Europe when it comes to drawing up their strategies and commercial policies.
The Commission therefore considers it very desirable for Parliament and the Council to reach an agreement on this proposal for a Regulation at first reading, so that the collection of this type of data can begin this very year. I believe that both institutions are very close to an agreement, and we hope that it is reached as soon as possible.
As I have said, the Regulation responds to a vacuum in the Community statistics that puts us at a disadvantage. At the moment, we only have the data that certain Member States collect on a voluntary basis, either within the context of structural economic statistics or the compilation of its balance of payments statistics. It is not possible to calculate aggregates for the European Union of twenty-five, however, given the diversity of the methods used and the type of information compiled.
There is no need to point out the importance of completing the internal market and the importance for all of us of the Lisbon Strategy and its objectives of increasing growth and employment and of making the European Union an attractive area for investments and one that favours entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore, this is a year in which the importance of defending European interests in multilateral commercial negotiations is particularly obvious.
The data that this Regulation is intended to obtain is extremely useful in all of these respects. At the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about a type of statistic that is essential to increasing the dynamism, vitality and competitiveness of European companies and economic actors.
In this regard, the Commission believes that the amendments that the honourable Members have presented and discussed and that are aimed at speeding up the implementation of the compilation of this data provide an excellent basis for reaching a compromise at first reading.
Nevertheless, for the same reason, the Commission does not agree that it is necessary to maintain the amendments relating to Parliament’s role in implementing the Regulation, since, given its very technical nature, this kind of amendment would provide relatively little added value, while almost certainly preventing an agreement with the Council at first reading; I am referring, of course, to Amendments 1, 2 and 9, which are aimed at extending the procedures of the so-called Lamfalussy process, in relation to the legislation on financial services, to the field of the compilation of statistical data.
The honourable Members, and in particular the members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, which is also responsible for the negotiation of the directives on financial services, are in a privileged position to appreciate the differences between the two sectors. There is no need to remind you of the different levels of implementation of the legislation on financial services and the reasons, very different to those in relation to the case we are discussing today, why the Commission considered it appropriate, on some of these levels, for Parliament to have a greater capacity for scrutiny than that laid down in the current rules on comitology."@en1
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