Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-18-Speech-1-175"
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"en.20070618.17.1-175"2
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".
Madam President, I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Ferreira, and the committee for this excellent report. Once again, this annual report proves the added value Parliament brings to competition policy development, and I am grateful for that.
As you rightly point out in the report, an effective competition policy plays a key role in achieving the Lisbon Strategy goals. To remain effective, competition policy needs to keep up with the evolving world around it. I am very pleased that Parliament supports the Commission’s efforts to modernise competition policy, and in particular the work we did in 2005 to pursue a more refined economic approach.
I agree with the report on very many issues, so I shall just mention three points where your comments really struck me.
First, as you note, state aid control is essential to maintain a level playing field in the internal market. Through our ongoing reform, we are redesigning our rules to make them more simple, more transparent, more user-friendly, more coherent and more predictable. Our rules focus on the areas where limited amounts of aid can have most added value – competitiveness, the environment, training, regional cohesion, research, development and innovation. We have made good progress with the reform, but Member States must also do their share, as you say, particularly when it comes to recovering illegal state aid quickly and effectively.
The second point that struck me was that 2005 was the year we launched two major sector inquiries. I agree with you about the value of these tools for a forward-looking policy. In the energy sector, you are right to be concerned that the facts show serious barriers to competition. The Commission will continue to pursue individual competition cases, working in cooperation with our colleagues in the national competition authorities. Regulation in this sector needs to be improved, with the requirement of ownership unbundling a priority.
Third, you are right that, in today’s globalised world, competition authorities need to cooperate more than ever before. Europe has a key role to play in encouraging strong competition cultures elsewhere in the world. At the same time, Europe needs to be able to respond to unfair foreign subsidies. The common commercial policy – rather than matching aid – is the proper tool to address this. Subsidy competition would undermine Europe’s cohesion, create damaging subsidy races within our internal market, and bring serious risk of WTO litigation.
I am looking forward to the debate."@en1
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