Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-02-Speech-1-082"
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"en.20001002.6.1-082"2
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".
Mr President, I would firstly like to point out that the Commission is pleased to have received the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. I thank Mr Skinner and Mrs Kauppi for their comments. Both clearly support the Community strategy for the development of risk capital in the European Union.
With regard to the Community patent, I simply wish to say that, back in July, the Commission approved its proposal on this issue. We believe that it is a fundamental instrument for reducing costs and safeguarding and increasing legal certainty in those innovative companies operating within the Union.
The Community patent will no doubt cause practical problems – some of you have mentioned such complex issues as the linguistic rules – but this is not, unfortunately, a problem which we can discuss at the moment.
Nevertheless, these two specific issues must not lead us to forget other aspects which you have highlighted, such as the improvement of the economic, regulatory and legislative situation, which is essential if risk capital is to be as dynamic as it is in the United States. The regulatory, administrative and fiscal burdens of investments in risk capital are one of the obstacles in Europe and, in this respect, as in the field of cultural barriers, which certainly exist, the existence of that information, with a comparative situation in the various Member States, should give us more detailed knowledge of the good practices in each of the various Member States. We will thereby achieve better practical results which, in the end, will result in a speeding up of the use of risk capital in the countries of the Union.
Some of you have mentioned the problem of public funding in the case of risk capital and we certainly have to clarify the compatibility of that public funding with all the legislation on competition. Some of you wondered why public funding had to be merely a supplement to private funding. This is not a desire to exclude anything, but simply a desire to use the available resources in the best way. It is not reasonable for public funding to compete with private funding when it comes to financing risk capital projects, and we should use that public funding for those types of project which are most difficult to finance through the private sector.
From the point of view of the Union itself, we are considering the best way to use the available instruments, especially the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. Around the middle of October, the Commission will also publish a second communication, which we will send to the Council and Parliament, in which we will analyse the various financial instruments managed by the Commission and the future outlook on the essential issue of risk capital.
In conclusion, I would say that I consider the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs to be an excellent and important contribution, and it is enormously constructive, in terms of the efforts to develop the risk capital market.
It is satisfying to see that the recommendations of this committee largely coincide with our proposals for risk capital action plans, and I would like to thank the rapporteur and all the members of the committee for participating in this debate.
I believe there is a clear consensus on the important role to be played by risk capital as a driving force for economic growth and, consequently, for employment.
As the honourable Members know – some speakers have mentioned it – the European Council at Lisbon paid particular attention to promoting our efforts to implement risk capital in such a way that the action plan will be finished in 2003. Some of you have referred to the possibility of speeding it up. There is no doubt that this speeding up will depend on the Member States’ ability to implement certain measures.
Remember though that the action plan for risk capital predates Lisbon, since it dates back to 1998. However, past circumstances do not matter as much as what we intend to do for the future. In this respect, I would like to inform you that the Commission will be sending a communication to the Council and the European Parliament on the progress made with regard to risk capital in accordance with the Lisbon objective.
The communication will include a mechanism for comparative monitoring and assessment to provide precise knowledge of what is happening in each of the Member States, and to allow us to draw relevant conclusions and to introduce, into those countries which consider it appropriate, the best practices which have been adopted in others.
An important factor that has been mentioned is the growth in risk capital during 1999. This is clearly essential. If we analyse the figures in absolute terms, we should be very satisfied with this result. Nevertheless, and some of you have highlighted this, when we compare it with the figure in the United States, we have to acknowledge that the difference is significant. Our fundamental objective must be to reduce these differences which still exist in comparison with the United States.
To this end, it is crucial that we carry out a range of concrete actions, and the first and most fundamental is the integration of the European Union’s risk capital market.
Some of you have referred to two specific examples which I would like to highlight – pension funds and the possibility of a more effective Community patent – which allow risk capital to be better used. As for pension funds, I will tell you that, this week in principle, the Commission should approve a proposal for a directive which offers pension funds greater opportunities to invest in securities throughout the Union.
We are clearly talking about supplementary pension funds and not about an obligation to invest in this way. We are talking about removing the current obstacles and, therefore, there should be none of the problems you have mentioned with regard to future risks. Clearly, the opening up to risk capital will require scrupulous behaviour on the part of managers so as to minimise any possible risks."@en1
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