Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-10-Speech-2-704-000"
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"en.20110510.67.2-704-000"2
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"Mr President, rather than a technical debate, I think this is more of a policy debate within the context of decisions made by the institutions of the European Union – in this case Parliament, the Commission and the Council – to boost the real economy.
The European Commission and the Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship intend to carry on supporting industrial policy and small and medium-sized enterprises, partly so as to provide answers to our citizens on the issue of the quality of the products made by our businesses. The competitiveness of the European economy is also measured in terms of product quality as a factor in the protection of the health of our fellow citizens. That is why this evening, at the end of this debate, the European Commission is renewing its desire to press ahead with origin labelling. As I already announced – and in order to reassure Mr Cancian and all the other honourable Members who have voiced concern about the overly long timescales – I can confirm that we will try to present our work ahead of schedule. In this regard, I confirm that I have authorised my staff to continue down our chosen path, because the Commission has always supported origin labelling both for products made in the European Union and for those that are imported.
This evening’s debate has certainly not been fruitless, because Mrs Győri clearly stated that the Council sets great store by the clause we are discussing – which is the key to today’s policy debate – and that it is ready to reach a forward-looking rather than a backward-looking agreement with the Commission and Parliament in order to provide our citizens with real answers.
I continue to believe that the traceability issue affects the competitiveness of SMEs and – just as my top priority since being appointed as a European Commissioner has been SME policy, so continuing the work of my predecessor – I intend to continue protecting the health of consumers through quality products which will be the only competitive ones on the international market, because the competitiveness of European Union products is measured in terms of quality. That is why I think it is important to continue working in this direction.
I am satisfied with the agreement reached between the co-legislators. As you well know, Parliament and the Council have to assess it at second reading, but the European Commission intends to seize back the policy initiative and reinvigorate it. In other words, the Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship intends to start work immediately on ensuring the protection of our products, for the sake of the competitiveness of our businesses and the health of our citizens.
Before concluding, I should like to mention our commitment to supporting innovation in the textile and clothing sector. Adjusting legislation is one way of defending our competitiveness, but there are other industrial policy initiatives in the works as well. I will mention just two of them. We are developing measures to support the transfer of research outcomes and their transformation into tangible, marketable products and services. We are also preparing a communication on the fundamental aspects of competitiveness in the fashion industry.
All of this goes towards underlining the need to protect European businesses and the fact that there can be no growth and development, and above all no jobs, in a social and market economy situation in which the market – which is also a fundamental instrument of our European Union – does not pursue a higher and more important goal, namely social policy."@en1
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