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during my six months as a member of this parliament i have become acutely aware of the determination of many members to drive forward what is described as the european project |
we daily hear the need to promote a wider and deeper europe |
but all this in effect is so much rhetoric when we look at the national regional and local obstacles which continue to block the operation of a true european single market |
that is the context in which i want to consider the commission's proposals |
i should like to make it clear that we have the greatest confidence in and respect for commissioner monti |
we look to him as the man to root out cartels |
but he would recognise that as for everybody else we have to consider his particular proposals and subject them to rigorous examination |
that is something that has been done by our rapporteur on the committee for economic and monetary affairs mr von wogau |
i want to congratulate him sadly in his absence for the thorough and rigorous way in which he has undertaken the preparation of his report and also for putting up with my being such a thorn in his side |
he mentioned earlier that the report was carried with a significant majority but not with my support |
so although i may not share his conclusions i believe he has illustrated in his report many of the issues which the commission must address |
the first is the potential for renationalisation of competition policy |
i know that the commission is set against this but the potential exists |
i remain worried about the capacity of national courts and the capacity of the national competition authorities i remain worried about the whole operation of the judicial process |
i asked commissioner monti the other day what happens if he proves to be wrong and there is an effective renationalisation |
mr von wogau said we can look to the european court |
well we in britain are looking to the european court at the moment |
we find that the european court is not able to provide us with interim measures in a certain dispute that we have with france at the moment in which we have the support of the commission |
unless anybody thinks that this is merely a nationalistic point in the factortame case in which the british government was the defendant it took ten years for the european court to give a ruling |
so judicially something needs to be done |
i ask the commission what can be done to speed up implementation in this particular area |
in relation to legal certainty i endorse the point made by mrs thyssen |
it is important that business has legal certainty |
i mentioned this again to commissioner monti recently |
he said we must not always be carried along by lawyers |
i must declare an interest as a lawyer but also as a former competition minister in the united kingdom |
we all have as it were our histories to live with but it is important that business has legal certainty |
i would also ask the commission whether an analysis has been undertaken of the implications of this change for business a costbenefit analysis of the sort that is now becoming so much more european policy |
i know there has been an analysis of the implications for the commission of the change |
we have been told how currently people's time is being wasted and that the changes therefore could be beneficial |
but i really feel that in the circumstances we want to know what the implications would be for business |
finally we as british conservatives are looking for a change in direction towards the development of an independent competition authority |
i would like to hear what commissioner monti has to say about that |
mr president the european union' s competition policy has been of central importance since european integration began |
it is an integral part of the tension inherent in the very concept of european integration between solidarity and cooperation between member states with a view to creating a better and more efficient environment for the people and the economy and competition which should provide incentives to improve the competitivenes... |
it is therefore with some justification that competition policy is one of the most important policies |
we can be proud of a european competition culture for it is this that will make the social market economy a reality |
we can be proud of monopolies and mergers supervision |
however we must be vigilant in the face of global operators against whom nationstates are no longer able to impose limits |
that is why we should bear in mind what was said by the french writer vivienne forestier who described the state of the world in terms of the economy' s reign of terror |
society is surrendering itself to the economy |
that is precisely what we do not want in the european union |
we are aware that in this age of strategic alliances and millennium mergers in 1998 usd 2 400 billion was paid out in connection with takeovers restrictive practices are being held in check not just by our own rules but also by bilateral cooperation with the usa or japan or others until we get the international compe... |
european competition policy as we very often forget is not just important for fair competition as such but also for prices growth and employment and hence for the public |
in common with the other members i call for parliament to have codecision rights where competition law is concerned |
it is essential that this long overdue step be taken |
it is also important to underline the connection between competition policy and consumer protection |
i welcome the fact that commissioner monti wants to make progress in this area in the dialogue with the european parliament as he does in the dialogue with nongovernmental organisations consumer protection associations and the public |
greater transparency will also help to achieve public acceptance of decisions relating to competition policy |
then it is possible to understand that for example lower electricity and telecommunications prices are due to european competition policy and brussels should not be pilloried when aid decisions are taken which are of course bound to cause problems at a particular moment in time or in a local context |
it is particularly important for there to be clarity in relation to competition rules in view of eu enlargement |
emphasis must also be placed on the fact that a state aid policy and the jonckheer report makes this very clear must continue to afford each state the freedom to define and organise the tasks of the public sector and ownership structures on an independent basis |
at the same time it must be made clear that aid can serve a useful purpose with a view to offsetting the deficiencies of the market and furthering community objectives |
a word on the white paper the revision of articles 81 and 82 represents a change of direction in monopolies policy |
i am opposed to this unlike the majority of this house and indeed the majority of my own group because i believe that in competition policy terms the directly applicable exception system is in every sense inferior to a system of prohibition unless certain conditions are met and i believe there is a threat of renational... |
the system currently in force creates transparency affords enterprises legal certainty and has without a shadow of a doubt led to discipline and acted as a deterrent on account of the notification requirement |
the problem of overwork highlighted by the commission is not a sufficient reason for making radical changes to the legal system |
indeed it is debatable whether this could be carried through at all without amending the treaty |
mr president i am very glad that mrs randzioplath mentioned the very important context of our debate because up until now no other speaker has done so |
the advent of the euro at the beginning of last year unleashed enormous competitive forces within european business which are being met by a merger wave of quite unprecedented proportions |
for example the figures for last year now show that the total value of mergers in the european area was eur 14 trillion which is seven times the level of merger activity at the peak of the last european merger boom in 1990 |
this poses enormous challenges for competition policy which i hope it will be able to meet because for certain many of those mergers are going to be designed to protect profit margins of the businesses from competition rather than merely to enhance productivity and make those businesses able to operate on a bigger scal... |
commissioner monti and his colleagues have a tremendous challenge ahead of them and our worries in the eldr group are that there should be no weakening in the thrust of competition policy either in the examination of mergers or the monitoring of restrictive practices |
delegation to national authorities is all very well but we would emphasise what mr von wogau said in his report on the need for regular monitoring of national authorities to ensure that there is no slippage in the european element and particularly would ask the commissioner to reassure us that there would be random che... |
mr president in the limited time i have i would like to express my support for the work carried out by all the rapporteurs and my agreement with many of the things which have been said here in particular by mr jonckheer who criticised the excessive gathering of information and the lack of transparency and socioeconomic... |
i also agree with the criticism that no emphasis has been put on the implementation of article 82 especially when we are witnessing abusive conduct in a context of market concentration |
as a member for the basque country i would like to express my total support for the implementation measures for fair competition in the market |
i say this in case there is any doubt about the criticisms which we have directed at the commission in general and mr monti in particular for its persecution of the incentives to basque companies and the fact that it considers them to be state aid |
our discrepancy stems from the fact that the commission continues to misunderstand the character of the general system and the coresponsibility of our arrangement which gives our basque fiscal rules the same nature foundation and aim as the rules of the member states of the union and that they are applied in a general ... |
mr president commissioner competition is exactly what we need |
we need competition if there is the least unemployment for a smoothrunning healthcare system for social justice for high social standards and of course we also need these are competition criteria to do with the economy business management competition so as to achieve highestquality products equal market access condit... |
in other words we must succeed in linking the competition criteria that are necessary to the economy with those relating to managerial economics |
i often have the impression unlike the country i come from former east germany where economic competitiveness is prized above all else and competitiveness relating to managerial economics is disregarded that very often the reverse is the case society thinks almost exclusively in terms of managerial economics |
i say that as an entrepreneur who has a vested interest in this |
but a system cannot function in this way it will only work if the two aspects go hand in hand |
i will give you an example the european union was right to support the grönitz steelworks in brandenburg although out of 5 000 jobs only 700 remained |
but these are competitive jobs for this steelworks is now the number two tool steel manufacturer in the federal republic of germany |
anyone who would jeopardise production at this steelworks on principle by demanding the return of the aid that was granted at the time would not just place the steelworks itself in jeopardy but also one of the region' s employers that small and mediumsized enterprises are of course dependent on too |
it goes without saying that that is not what the european union' s competition policy is designed to achieve |
if we want there to be competition then we must establish this link between the requirements of the national economy and the prerequisites of managerial economics |
indeed that is the only way to build up regional economic circulation in the underdeveloped regions that will protect people' s social welfare and boost purchasing power |
to that end we must also make it our business to take more account of demandorientated economic policy as opposed to one focusing heavily on supply |
mr president ever since i was elected to this parliament in 1994 i have never witnessed a report which had such antiirish sentiments and overtones as the jonckheer report which we are debating today |
i would like to quote verbatim from the report state aid per capita is highest in italy germany and ireland |
i believe that the rapporteur is simply playing with figures |
i find it difficult to understand how he can index regional and social funds into this mathematical equation |
i should like to remind the member that the european union has agreed to the new regional aid guidelines for the period 2000 plus |
this was merely an extension of the policy objectives to complete the internal market within europe |
regional disparities must be overcome if the internal market is to succeed and prosper |
i welcome the fact that grant aid of 40 and a topup of 15 for smes for fixed investment will be permitted for companies setting up in objective 1 regions in europe post2000 |
i remind mr jonckheer that irish companies or foreign companies in ireland still have to cross two sea masses to reach the mainland european marketplace |
no other member state is at such a disadvantage |
mr president the monopolies' ban is the key element of functioning competition order in europe |
the commission deemed the practical administration relating to the monitoring of the monopolies' ban to be unsatisfactory something i would wholeheartedly agree with |
but opinion differs as to the solution |
the commission' s proposal does not formally deviate from the monopolies ban but the upshot of this proposal is a transition from a ban with permit reservation to a permit with ban reservation |
in other words we are making the transition from the principle of banning to that of misuse |
both i and other meps utterly reject such a drastic change of system |
i do not accept that a practical transposition problem should give rise to changing the law |
we would be changing the law to make it executable again which is something i consider to be unacceptable |
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