Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-359"
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"en.20070926.22.3-359"2
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"Mr President, this is, of course, unfinished business from the Services Directive, and, although I agree with much of the Commissioner’s analysis, we do have a problem. We have a problem of confidence. It is a bit like the Northern Rock bank in the UK over the past few weeks. Whatever it said, the customers were still queuing outside, wanting their money back. It is a bit like that with us and cross-border services. Whatever we say, consumers still are not confident enough to use those services. We have to find a way of addressing that.
Those in this House that sat on the Temporary Committee of Inquiry into the Crisis of the Equitable Life Assurance Society also saw only too clearly that there is this problem of confidence. But we will not be able to address that by going back to old proposals that dealt with problems perceived some 20 years ago. We have got to deal with the problems and situation that we have now.
What we are basically dealing with, in looking at service providers’ obligations, is looking at basic contract law and basic contractual obligations. In this regard, we currently have on the table Rome I, which Ms Kauppi has referred to; if we get that right, it will help. We also have the whole review of the consumer acquis; if we get that right, it will help. We have the preparation of the Common Frame of Reference on contract law; if we use that, and if the Commission puts a great deal more effort into getting the Member States to take it up, that would also help.
So there is much that can already be used to help us get right the relationship between private international law and regulation. What we do not need – I agree with Mr Harbour – is the Commission writing soft law codes of conduct.
Let us use what is already being done at the moment and what is in preparation. We can keep a weather eye on whether or not we need yet another horizontal instrument, but, at this stage, I really doubt it.
What we also need to address is the possibility of giving our consumers the right to cross-border access to justice where they can act together as a group. This would be a balancing of arms against providers. It would make good the current lack of cross-border access to justice, which we saw all too clearly with Equitable Life. People do not like to use the words ‘class actions’, and neither do I, but a European right of collective redress might help give us the confidence for consumers that is currently lacking on this continent."@en1
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