Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-03-Speech-1-123"
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"en.20060403.11.1-123"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this annual appointment is important because it is the only time when the European Parliament can fully discuss competition policy as managed by the Commission and evaluate it. As such, it is important that this Parliament ensures that free and undistorted competition remains genuinely free and undistorted and that, when matters deserve to be looked into a little more closely, this can be done, including in this Chamber, whether it is a question of Microsoft, of Rhodia-Rhône-Poulenc or of Ryanair-Charleroi.
Given, Commissioner, that you are going to reopen the debate on, among other things, the important concept of mergers, which plays a key role in competition policy, I should like to draw your attention to one point, in the hope that this Parliament will support us on this issue. It seems to us that the threshold criteria that are already in force within the Commission prevent it from declaring its competence each time that it ought to. On the subject, for instance, of the alignment of the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse, you were not competent in the end because the turnover in question lay below the thresholds. These are grounds here for a real investigation.
My second remark concerns the Mittal-Arcelor affair. Does free and undistorted competition imply that the ownership conditions of the businesses in question should be left completely to one side? It seems to me that this is also a matter for serious thought.
Lastly, my final point: you will not be surprised to hear that, as far as the Socialist Group in the European Parliament is concerned, competition policy is only meaningful if it contributes to the Lisbon Strategy. It must integrate social objectives, environmental objectives and long-term objectives. I hope that, in this way, we will succeed in rebalancing the concept of free and undistorted competition so that the Union actually becomes the most competitive area in the world, while honouring the need for full employment and sustainable development."@en1
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