Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-17-Speech-3-486"
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"en.20081217.27.3-486"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the phenomenon of counterfeiting, of imitation, is a legal problem with obvious financial repercussions. The legal dimension referred to relates to infringement of intellectual property rights; the financial dimension has to do with lost customs duty and VAT, which are an important component of the European budget, the European Union’s own resources.
The economic dimension of the problem is obvious. Counterfeit products damage the competitiveness of European companies and, by extension, employment. The most worrying dimension of the problem is the threat to the health and the very life of consumers. Certainly, Commissioner, stepping up work with our trading partners is one measure. I would say that creating a European observatory of counterfeiting and piracy and approving a ‘made in’ manufacturing mark would also be a step in the right direction.
Nonetheless, Commissioner, although you do not have the relevant portfolio, I should like to say to you and to remind the honourable members that quantitative restrictions have been abolished on imports of clothing textile products. In my constituency, when I was a member of the Hellenic Parliament, factories were shut down and thousands of workers were left unemployed. No customs cooperation with the importing countries had come first; the Commission itself admitted as much. Customs cooperation came after the event and the European Union is paying to establish customs cooperation. That was your oversight. That was the Commission’s oversight. We revised the sugar regime and the ones who got rich are the multinational sugar-exporting companies, not the producers from the poor developing countries, according to official statistics.
Commissioner, I am not in favour of a Europe which is closed to the world. We are in favour of a Europe open to the world, but with rules, principles, transparency and identical terms of play. Products are being imported into the European Union with social dumping, with ecological dumping, and the European Commission does not react. The European Commission has a sovereign role in common foreign trade policy. You negotiate with third country partners; you set the terms of cooperation. Luckily, the Lisbon Treaty changes the terms of our interinstitutional relationship and the European Parliament will co-legislate with you and then the culture of cooperation between the European Commission and the European Parliament will also change. We are waiting for that time to come."@en1
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