Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-21-Speech-4-033"
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"en.20021121.2.4-033"2
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"Mr President, the debate on the Annual Report on Competition Policy ought to be the most important debate on this subject to take place in the House each year. This is not always the case however. The explanation can be found in the nature of Parliament and its Rules of Procedure. They do not lend themselves to discussion of long-term issues. After all, this is a political chamber, not an academic body or a group of experts. To take an example, here we are at the end of 2002 debating the content of a Commission report relating to 2001. Many significant events have taken place since then.
Given these constraints, any report by Parliament is unlikely to be a suitable document and provide an overview of the present state of the debate on European competition policy. I do not of course wish to imply any criticism of Mr Lipietz. He has done good work. What happens is that interplay between political majorities and minorities, a feature of chambers like ours, means that a whole range of elements tend to be added to resolutions such as the one before us today. Often these elements have little direct bearing on the main issue, which on this occasion is competition policy.
Clearly, this is nothing new. I am sure Mr Lipietz would agree with me. When he appeared before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs he regretted the introduction of many of the additional sections and the rejection of other potential ones. I am therefore bound to agree with the rapporteur. I believe that if the report were approved as it now stands, it would not prove to be a document offering useful insights or significant contributions to the current debate on competition, despite the rapporteur’s good work.
Further to Commissioner Monti’s statement today, you should all agree on these shortcomings. In Mr Monti’s view, there are several serious problems in the area of competition at present. These relate to modernisation, to reform of Regulation 17 dating from 1962, which we trust will be undertaken as a matter of urgency, and to the various difficulties arising from repeated jurisprudence on mergers at the Court of First Instance. I refer to the three rulings.
Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, European competition policy and the Commission’s work in this field have been vital to the creation of the single market. Thanks to the introduction of the euro, it has become obvious that price differences between the Member States still exist. Allow me to suggest that we should today be considering whether competition policy needs to be strengthened, institutionally or in some other way, so as to overcome the last remaining barriers between us and the single market.
These, then, are some of the problems we should be tackling. It is unfortunate that we have failed to do so in the course of this debate."@en1
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