Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-18-Speech-2-115"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2000-01-18"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:VOTE2
dcterms:Language	"fr"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20000118.4.2-115"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2000-01-18-Speech-2-1172
lpv:speaker	lp:Gérard Caudron2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Delegation to the EU-Poland Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-10-06--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Parti socialiste (1999-07-20--2002-07-09)3 member; Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 substitute; Delegation to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-10-08--2002-01-14)3 substitute; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 member_of_the_bureau; PES (1999-07-20--2002-01-16)3
lpv:translated text	". I am pleased to see the quality of the seventh report on state aid within the EU, and to see that it will henceforth be an annual report, and also that the Directorate-General for Competition will be making information, both general and specific, publicly accessible via its website. I am happy with the rapporteur’s treatment of state aid and I congratulate him on this. There is too often a tendency to criticise state aid harshly as a measure causing distortion in competition. Admittedly, an effective competition policy is a prerequisite for the proper operation of the internal market and of economic and monetary union. However, as the rapporteur pointed out, such aid is occasionally essential and may, in addition to enabling the survival of a specific firm, make it possible to contribute to sustainable development (Article 6 of the Treaty), services of general economic interest (Article 16) and economic and social cohesion (Article 158). Clearly though, it must be monitored, a task which falls to the European Commission. The aid which Union Member States allocate each year to the sectors under consideration reached a total of EUR 95 billion in the period 1995-1997, including 40% allocated to the manufacturing sector. This aid is considerably less than the previous period, 1993-1995 (a 13% drop in the total amount and a drop from 3.8% to 2.6% in the amount of aid to the manufacturing sector). This downturn in aid is chiefly due to the reduction in aid granted to the new German Länder. Like the rapporteur, I deplore the fact that the figures given in the report do not cover all state aid. The European Commission must make good these omissions as soon as possible. It must also cooperate with the Member States in order to improve the quality of data in good time, which is to say in time for the ninth report. I think it would be a good idea if the Commission published a register specifying the amount of state aid per Member State. I also deplore the fact that the European Parliament has been totally excluded from the Advisory Committee on State Aid. In order to compensate for this situation, the European Commission should be obliged to make regular reports to us. I shall conclude with one aspect of the use of state aid which I feel is particularly dangerous: the matter of aid resulting in businesses relocating from one Member State to another, with the risk of subsidy hunting which makes no contribution to the shared objectives of the EU. This is why I should like to see the next report on state aid include some assessment of the effect of such aid on employment, industry and craft businesses in the beneficiary countries."@en1

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