Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-19-Speech-1-201"
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"en.20080519.27.1-201"2
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"Mr President, may I begin by congratulating Lasse Lehtinen on this good and balanced draft report. We are in agreement on very many points. One reason for this has been the very good preliminary work of the Commission in this case. There are few contentious points.
Consumer strategy will be one of the main topics of discussion during the next stage in the development of the internal market. At the heart of the three main challenges facing the European Union, namely growth, employment and the recognition and satisfaction of people's needs, are 490 million consumers. The internal market has the potential to become the world's largest retail market. This is why the ALDE Group supports the Commission's targeted efforts to create one large retail market out of 27 mini-markets.
We also welcome the way in which the draft reinforces the horizontal element of consumer policy as well as its proposal for the appointment of what it calls consumer-liaison officers. In this context I should make special mention of the proposed strengthening of the European Consumer Centres and the particular attention given to the needs of children and elderly people.
May I also say something on the subject of collective redress, with which we have a problem. We have had little information and much dogma. I believe it would be premature, Meglena, to say that you will have the solid backing of Parliament on this matter. We have just heard from the PPE-DE Group that it will not back you. I believe the PPE-DE is failing to recognise the real problems. There is a scatter-gun type of damage that affects many consumers in more than one country. It is legitimate for the Commission to give some thought to this whole matter and examine it in a study. On the other hand we have PSE dogma, which craves this instrument at all costs as a political tool, regardless of the real problems – and the real problems are manifold.
There is, for example, the problem of the legal basis. Where in the Treaty does it say that we here in the Commission and Parliament are entitled to interfere with the Member States' codes of civil and criminal procedure? What did Diana Wallis just tell us on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs? The problem of contract law is still unresolved. The question of opting in or opting out, the role of the Ombudsman – there are many problems to resolve. It is simply not enough to say we do not want the US system. The Americans also had the best of intentions when they first created their system. It goes without saying that they did not intentionally create a bad system at the outset.
For these reasons we should maintain an agnostic, critical position. We should wait for the study, take its findings seriously and then engage in an informed, non-dogmatic and responsible discussion, as befits this Parliament."@en1
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