Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-03-Speech-3-195"
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"en.20020703.6.3-195"2
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"Mr President, I wish first to express my gratitude for the warm words of the rapporteur, Manuel Medina Ortega, but I must say that the report has lost nothing with my replacement.
Mr President, the sharing of opportunities provided by the use of property with the time being shared – what is known as ‘timeshare’ – has not actually resulted in the happiness of all users. The problems that these products have experienced in the past and that still remain are well known and it was as a consequence of these problems that, in its time, Directive 94/47 was adopted, in the aim of providing protection against flagrant abuses of trust. Some problems, nevertheless, persist. The directive adheres to the principle of minimal harmonisation, establishing a low level of consumer protection measures that the Members States could then extend if they so wish. This has not, unfortunately, been common practice.
As a consequence, consumers now face a hotchpotch of laws, which afford greater protection in some States than in others. Since the directive was amended, the number of complaints received from European consumers has increased rather than decreased, as acknowledged by the Commission in its implementation report. There are, as a matter of fact, increasingly sophisticated methods of offering timeshare products, such as contracts of less than three years, normally of 35 months, thereby falling short of the minimum duration covered by the directive and evading Community discipline.
Similarly, the directive covers only property that is used at least seven days per year, which has led to an increase in timeshare
contracts for periods of less than seven days. As Mr Medina Ortega quite rightly states, the directive, therefore, clearly needs urgent revision. Consumers require an effective measure of protection for their transactions, in particular those that take place in more than one Member State. The industry needs guarantees that fair practices will be encouraged and supported, through a reworded directive that eliminates the scandalous practices that we have been seeing.
Mr President, either we come up with standards that, without involving excessive regulation, of course, allow this activity to develop freely, or we leave everything the way it is and we accept, in the open society – and the information society – in which we live, all the attacks on this industry, be they well-intentioned or otherwise, that wish to destroy the competitive framework in which it must operate. Our decision must come down on the side of consumers, of tourism, of leisure activities, of the opportunity of holidays for all and of respect for responsible and honest promoters and this is why I wish to congratulate the rapporteur, Manuel Medina Ortega, whose text clearly exposes the shortcomings that need to be overcome in a future legislative text. It now falls to the Commission to take responsibility and to say what needs to be said."@en1
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