Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-223"
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"en.20101006.16.3-223"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, first of all, I would like to thank the Commission for the flexibility it has just shown. Commissioner Barnier made reference to the fact that, in certain industries, in the construction industry, given the fact that there has been a substantial economic slump in the sector, there has been considerable movement when laying down penalties and granting – you cannot say ‘allowances’ – deferred payment options. I believe that to be a reasonable reaction on the Commission’s part, given the special economic situation in which many companies find themselves. Irrespective of this welcome flexibility on the Commission’s part, however, there is nonetheless clearly a need to ask the fundamental question of whether the system of determining penalties that we are currently looking at still, in any way, corresponds to the principles of the rule of law.
Dare I say, there may be some doubt about this. The reason is that, in laying down such a broad determination framework without specific criteria being laid down in the legislative instrument itself, Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 clearly does give the Commission such a free hand that you could almost suspect that the decisions behind it are not necessarily based on law making, but could instead very much involve certain elements of randomness. Unfortunately, the European General Court has so far gone along with this practice and this method of determination and has not been critical of it.
I could imagine, however – and we do face a changed situation, as we will now very soon accede to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Treaty of Lisbon has now made the Charter of Fundamental Rights binding – that, potentially, the case-law could change in light of this. I therefore think that consideration really should be given to this and I welcome the fact that the Commission is thinking about amending the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 in this area with regard to criteria and other types of sanctions, making the provisions more specific and laying down tougher criteria including in relation to the penalty measures to be laid down. Personally, I believe this to be necessary in order to counter the deficits in the rule of law that many experts see in Europe."@en1
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