Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-03-Speech-1-093"
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".
Mr President, the maritime sector’s economic importance is considerable, and its growth potential enormous. Precisely at a time when globalisation develops at an ever quicker pace, those global transport flows and the effective handling of them are of key importance. European industry has an important and strong role to play in this. It is a sector that is becoming highly competitive, and it is in actual fact the only sector that is still exempt from the application of the Treaty's rules of competition. It is therefore high time we abolished this exemption.
Consequently, this House pledges its support for Commissioner McCreevy’s proposal to repeal the present Regulation 4056/86. Legal uncertainty about the interpretation of competition rules is, however, something we want to avoid, and I am pleased that the Commissioner recognises this, because the Commission will, not least in the future, need to continue to take into consideration the specific characteristics of this internationally operating sector. That is why the rules should become clear in future.
That is also the reason why this House would like to see clear guidelines drafted for the sector before the regulation is withdrawn. I am pleased that the Commissioner has expressed the intention of doing so before the end of 2007 with regard to liner shipping. This House, though, since this criterion is an essential pillar in this proposal, believes that it should be explicitly mentioned in the legislative text. The sector must be given guaranteed legal certainty about what is, and is not, permitted in the present regulation.
I am pleased to hear that you have entered into intensive debates with the sector. This House would also ask you, though, and will also do so explicitly tomorrow, to consult it about the content of the guidelines. Can you give your word that this House will be consulted on this matter? This is, after all, often good practice in other areas too. I am pleased to say that, by the looks of things, we will, by a large majority, be able to send this powerful message to the Commission.
This House sets great store by the fact that the Commission spells it out that other forms of cooperation, including the consortia block exemption, would continue to apply to this container liner shipping sector, because important operational agreements can be made in this respect, for example in terms of capacity. Whilst that is a necessity for this sector, this should, of course, always be subject to Article 81 of the Treaty. It is vitally important to ensure that this cooperation should run smoothly.
With regard to cabotage and tramp services, the Commission suggests moving the enforcement of competition rules to European level. That is a logical step because the Treaty already applies at that level. Since this enforcement also belongs at European level, you can count on our support in this. Some Members of this House have proposed exempting cabotage, but I will not be supporting that view. Parliament would like to see guidelines drafted in the tramp sector too, because that sector, just like the other sectors, is also entitled to know where it stands. According to Parliament, guidelines should therefore be known in that area too before this legislation enters into effect.
Clarity right from the start prevents all kinds of costly legal procedures which the sector can really do without. There are already examples of such cases in the tramp sector with regard to pool agreements. There have been complaints in that sector, and it is unclear to that sector how the Commission will go on from here. So, once again, this lack of clarity should be mitigated by guidelines in that sector too.
The international dimension is, of course, vitally important to this internationally operating sector. We would therefore ask you – and fortunately you are already aware of this – to be very mindful of this international competitive position when the proposals are fleshed out further. That also applies to the repeal of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) code, and we look forward to receiving a report about those international developments so that we can follow them closely. Once again, we will be pledging our support, but the conditions are tough as nails as far as this House is concerned."@en1
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