Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-09-Speech-2-019"
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"en.20100309.4.2-019"2
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"Mr President, I would like to follow on from what Mr Barnier said at the start about the considerable importance of the internal market in the current crisis. This has been proven very clearly once again. However, the internal market obviously requires citizens to have confidence in it. Only then will it function in the right way. This is still lacking at many levels. In the debates in our own countries, we parliamentarians in particular very often notice that these fears of the internal market are still very much in evidence amongst the general public and that subjects like protectionism are, unfortunately, also well received because these sorts of things are not only propounded by governments, but are also supported by many citizens. It is therefore all the more important for us in Parliament to do our utmost to boost confidence in the internal market. Consumer policy is, of course, a key element in achieving this. Consumer policy providing a high level of consumer protection can increase and safeguard people’s confidence in the internal market. We therefore need to work harder in this area.
I welcome the fact that both of the Commissioners are here today. You are, of course, aware that our group, too, was critical of the fact that there is no longer a single commissioner responsible for consumer policy, because the message sent out by Mrs Kuneva was a very positive one. We therefore welcome the fact that you are giving us a very clear signal here that you want to cooperate in this area. We were also concerned that, by dividing the responsibilities between different commissioners, consumer protection would ultimately receive insufficient attention. I hope, however, that this is not just a one-off occurrence, but that you will cooperate on this very closely with us, because we have some very important issues to address; for example, we still have to finish debating the subjects of class actions law and collective redress, and progress needs to be made in this regard. Of course, that will also play a very important part in increasing the confidence of citizens.
We need more instruments that make it clear that citizens are protected in the internal market. SOLVIT is a very important instrument in this regard. We therefore wholeheartedly support Mr Buşoi’s report. SOLVIT, which provides an opportunity for out-of-court solutions, creates confidence in the internal market and provides consumers with a better knowledge of the internal market and this is something that is very often lacking on the part of the authorities in the Member States. SOLVIT can provide an important and key addition in this respect. This year, I am rapporteur for the budget and I can assure Mr Dalli that we will be vigilant in budgetary matters and the allocation of resources in the area of consumer policy. We have already approached our Committee on Budgets and emphasised that we, of course, want funds to continue to be provided and that we want the appropriate money to be used. In this regard, you can count on our support.
To summarise once again, I think that, overall, these reports send out a very important and very positive signal. Although we support them, we do have one point of criticism. This relates to the internal market check, which we feel is rather one-sided. If we are going to review the directives, they need to be reviewed from various different viewpoints. Sustainability is very important here, as are social issues. A review, if it is to be carried out, must not focus solely on the single aspect of the internal market. It must be a comprehensive review. The subject of subsidiarity must also be given adequate consideration in this regard. We therefore find the one-sided focus on the internal market check regrettable. In principle, however, we support the approach of the rapporteur, including with regard to the internal market check, and we will vote in favour of the report."@en1
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