Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-09-Speech-4-038-000"
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"en.20110609.4.4-038-000"2
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"Madam President, I would say to the Commissioner that over the last number of years, I have met many Irish citizens who have been victims of misleading business directory companies.
For example, I met a school secretary who paid over EUR 2 000 because the school could not afford to pay it as she felt responsible because she had signed the form. She also felt very foolish. She thought nobody could be so stupid as to do what she had done, not realising of course that this happens to people all the time.
I met an elderly lady whose husband was a taxi driver. She received a form on which there were some errors. She merely thought she was correcting the errors, sent the form back and subsequently received threatening letters for two years. She was terrorised by those letters to the extent that she was afraid to open the letter when it arrived at her door. I could not tell her not to pay the money. All I could say was that if I were in her position, I would not pay the money. That was the best advice I could give her.
There are lots of other examples, which I know you have heard. The truth is that citizens expect to be protected by European legislation and they cannot understand why European legislation does not protect them in this respect. There is an ambiguity here. As I said, I tell citizens that I believe that they are protected, but I cannot guarantee it. It is my understanding, for example, that one of these companies was convicted in one region of Spain, and yet all it did was simply move to another region and continue its work.
One of the matters that concerns citizens is that they are not sure of how legal systems operate in other countries. They may feel that within their own Member State they will be protected, but they are not sure what happens in another Member State. Equally, if these companies move outside the EU, they also have concerns about that.
It is good to hear, therefore, that the Commission shares our concern and that it is pushing for cooperation between Member States and again looking at cross-border cases and trying to inform citizens and companies.
Commissioner, you said the situation was urgent, but it has been urgent for a very, very long time. Citizens see many areas where EU legislation impacts on their lives, and so they cannot understand why they are not protected from fraudulent companies. I would ask you, Commissioner, to understand that the word ‘urgent’ means ‘now’."@en1
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