Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-14-Speech-1-245-000"
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"en.20111114.20.1-245-000"2
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"Mr President, honourable Members, 18 months ago, I promised you that I would open a wide-ranging consultation on the very important issue of online gambling. Today, we return to that subject, and I personally would like to come back to it by expressing my firm commitment to translating the main conclusions into action, beyond and after the consultation.
Sixthly, we need to act, because this sector is booming. In 2010, it generated EUR 8.5 billion in revenue, a figure that could reach EUR 13 billion in 2015. This may account for only 14% of the betting market in the EU, but Europe still makes up 45% of the world’s online gambling market. We need to support this sector as it expands while, at the same time, taking care to monitor it. What road map might we and should we use to respond to all your questions and all these challenges?
Ladies and gentlemen, let us be clear. We are not talking about harmonisation; we are looking at joint action on certain key issues, which will no doubt lead us towards a basic common regulatory framework, as I have already said.
I would like to mention six key areas in which we are going to take action.
Firstly, a dialogue between national regulators. We know that there is a lack of cooperation between national regulators, which probably stems from a lack of mutual trust.
Apart from a few bilateral agreements and a recent attempt to create a common platform, there is no culture of cooperation between national regulators. On the contrary, I have noticed that there has often been, and I repeat, a lack of trust.
However, without a new, additional degree of mutual trust, no progress will be made at European level in strengthening controls and safeguarding players, particularly the young.
Our priority should therefore be to make European regulators work together.
The second key point: a minimum standard of protection. We have to guarantee a high level of protection for every European citizen and, I repeat, particularly for young people, in order to move forward in this area. We will have to make online gambling professionals, who are currently self-regulated, and regulators, who, I would point out, apply different standards, work together. There is, consequently, a general requirement for greater clarity and legal certainty, and you put that across in your report, Mr Creutzmann.
The third key issue: the fight against fraud. There has been a broad consensus, in this consultation and in what you have been saying here, in favour of extending the scope of the directive on the prevention of money laundering so that it covers the entire online gambling sector rather than just casinos, as is currently the case. That would represent a significant step forward in monitoring the sector at EU level.
The fourth important point is addiction. Ms Irigoyen Pérez and Ms Sehnalová mentioned this earlier. We cannot talk seriously about consumer protection without recognising the need for further studies and research into the scientific data on gambling and addiction. We need to make full use of our research capacities on what can be considered at times a minor issue, although I do not see it as such.
We received over 250 responses which, along with the five expert workshops we organised, and the lively debates you yourselves have had, ladies and gentlemen, on the own-initiative report by Mr Creutzmann, clearly show a desire to see concrete steps taken at European level towards establishing a basic regulatory framework that respects that which Mr Harbour called – and which I too would like to mention – active subsidiarity.
The integrity of sport is the fifth key aspect. Mr Creutzmann, ladies and gentlemen, I have noted your interest in the matter of fraud in sport, and I share your desire to help find effective solutions, including the idea of defining sporting fraud at EU level and even of criminalising it. I believe it is an interesting idea but one that would be difficult to implement. We cannot address this issue by improvising. It requires a great deal of legal and technical work, and I am working on this with my fellow Commissioners who are directly involved, particularly Ms Reding, Ms Vassiliou and, of course, the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, Mr Dalli.
I am also convinced that progress will have to be made if, as Mr Abad mentioned, sporting organisations are to cooperate more with operators and regulators in order to prevent match fixing.
The sixth area to work on is ensuring that national systems comply with the Treaties. I would like to answer Mr Takkula on this point, because he mentioned the European Court of Justice, which is quite clear on the restrictions that can be justified in the public interest.
I think that in order to make progress in this area, Mr Takkula, we will need to clarify what distinguishes a legal gambling offering from an illegal one. This raises the question of compliance of national systems with the Treaties. The Commission will shoulder its responsibilities in this area as in others.
Mr Creutzmann, based on these key issues, your comments, your proposals and your report, how are we going to tackle this?
My own initial inclination would be to promote cooperation between regulators, and in the coming weeks I intend to personally organise and hold a meeting with all the national regulators in order to establish a climate of trust, which does not really exist at the moment, and to lay the foundations of that cooperation.
If, as one might expect, that cooperation between regulators enables us to move forward on the key subjects we have talked about, but especially if it highlights the need for additional action, then we will work towards a second stage, which could, as Mr Paška requested, be based on regulatory initiatives, and create minimum standards.
Naturally, I want to be very clear on this issue. I am a Member of the College of European Commissioners, and I have to work with all my colleagues and encourage them to share that conviction. We will quickly embark on the first stage, which I already mentioned: regulators working together. Following that initial assessment and effort, I will have to share with my colleagues my belief in the need to go further, as I have just expressed, particularly in terms of drawing up basic regulatory initiatives.
It will therefore be important to work through these stages one by one. Therefore, now that I have set out the main issues we are facing, I shall begin my work in the light of your report, Mr Creutzmann, and I intend to propose a plan of specific actions, which I shall submit to the European Commission in mid-2012, once the College has debated and reached a decision on it.
I am infinitely grateful to you, Mr Creutzmann, and to you, ladies and gentlemen, for this report, which is going to enlighten, guide and strengthen the Commission in its forthcoming work.
I should like to thank Mr Creutzmann for his commitment, and Ms Schaldemose, Ms Rühle, Mr Abad, Mr de Jong and Mr Fox for the contributions they have made to this report.
We have a collective responsibility: to help Member States to regulate online gambling; to safeguard consumers, particularly young people; to develop legal offerings; and to fight effectively and jointly against fraud.
You can be sure of my determination in all these areas.
The report testifies to your broad consensus on the assessment.
Firstly, in the online environment, no Member State is in a position to guarantee the protection of consumers and citizens by itself. I am echoing what my fellow Commissioner and friend, Mr Dalli, said earlier on the more general issue of consumers.
Secondly, all consumers and citizens – and particularly young people and minors, as Ms Roithová said earlier – should be able to enjoy a minimum level of equal and effective protection, no matter what kind of gambling platform they use.
Thirdly, while every Member State is free to determine its own market’s level of deregulation, in accordance with the principle of coherence, it is clear that we are gradually moving towards a controlled deregulation of numerous markets, as Mr Abad very succinctly described earlier.
Fourthly, in the absence of legal offerings in Europe, Europeans gamble and will continue to gamble on illegal third-country websites, which are not protected and are open to all kinds of fraud and money laundering.
Fifthly, we should be careful to offer attractive conditions for online gambling operators, taking account of the consequences of what I have just said, if we wish to both protect players and prevent fraud."@en1
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