Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-295"
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"en.20030212.10.3-295"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, this is the third time in the space of the last few days that we find ourselves discussing the significance of the internal market. On Monday, we discussed the fallout from the World Economic Summit in Davos, and today we have already had a debate on the Spring Summit. Circling around the future of the internal market and the Lisbon targets, both debates made clear how important the internal market is to us. Both the Commissioner and the ten-year balance sheet documented and demonstrated the benefits brought by the internal market, in terms of growth, employment and competitiveness, to all our continent's citizens. Yet, despite these manifest advantages, the internal market is not yet complete and still has a large number of weaknesses. Allusion was made to the facts that 50% of the objectives have not yet been achieved, that the progress made is less than what had been aimed for, and that 2.1% of all the directives on the internal market have still not yet been transposed. We therefore call on the Commission and the Council to avail themselves of all the options available, including sanctions, coordination and the initiation of legislation, in order to bring to fruition those things to which we have jointly committed ourselves. The Lisbon targets are ambitious, and we will not achieve them without a successful internal market and without adherence to the Stability and Growth Pact.
The internal market and the Stability and Growth Pact are the essential instruments for achieving the Lisbon targets by 2010. Their importance lies in the credibility they give to long-term objectives. They have an essential contribution to make in building confidence in Europe's goals on the part of the public, of enterprises and employees.
There is a blatant discrepancy between what is piously promised at summits and what is transposed at home, and so we demand that all the directives on the internal market be transposed into law. We demand that coordination of this process be taken charge of by the Commission, and that its right to initiate legislation be extended. This is no longer a matter of apportioning guilt, but of specifying short-term targets – and responsibilities – on the way to the overall objective. This has to do with fiscal policy, with the various competences involved, which still lead to distortions of competition and to new obstacles. It has to do with studying the effects on small and medium-sized enterprises as we progress towards this great internal market. Of course, it also affects the internal market in financial services, which would alone account for 1.1% – or EUR 130 billion worth – of growth, and it has to do with the creation of the internal services market. There is much for us to do, and, although we see from the balance sheet that we are on the right road, we must not slow down or come to a halt; instead, we have to discover a new dynamism. So I thank the rapporteur for having made us aware of these things in such an impressive way and also for defining new objectives."@en1
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