Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-15-Speech-4-111"
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"en.20030515.5.4-111"2
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"Mr President, I should like to apologise for Mr Sterckx's absence. I wish him well in Sunday's elections. I do not like nuclear options, to use the term adopted by someone in Mr Bolkestein's cabinet to refer to Mr Monti's proposal to force the postal market to split its activities. Only recently did I find out that nuclear options or nuclear explosions are not always dangerous. Thailand is about to decide on digging a canal right across the country, just like the Suez or Panama Canal. This mechanical excavation work would certainly cost 20 billion. The Japanese are very interested because this would save them USD 300 000 annually if oil tankers heading for Japan would no longer need to pass through the perilous strait of Malacca. The Japanese subsequently suggested helping to build it by removing a number of difficult mountains along the way by means of a few friendly nuclear explosions. This would cut down the building costs to 3 billion.
As you can see, the nuclear option does not always cause as much damage as we imagine. The Commission has applied Article 86 before, notably in the early nineties, to the telecom sector. This worked well then. The liberalisation of the telecom sector is still known as one of the most appealing successes of European policy of the nineties.
To me, Mr Monti's proposal is therefore aimed at the Council, which will now have to take some serious decisions concerning the liberalisation of the postal services. The fact that the EP is being by-passed with this proposal is not easy for me, and cannot be dismissed just like that. Nevertheless, together with the European Commission, I am turning my gaze to the Council, for they are the ones that matter in this case.
With regard to the universal provision of services by postal companies, Mr Bolkestein once mentioned the compensation fund which could be a purely mechanical way of solving the problem of cross-subsidisation at the coalface. It will therefore remain possible, Monsieur Savary, to send a letter to the remotest corner of Provence. Does the Commission intend to table further proposals in this area? Would a compensation fund of this kind then be able to run parallel to the Commission's recent proposal?
As for the plans to impose VAT on public post office services, I should like to point out that these post offices can also deduct the VAT from services they would need to pay for. In addition, the plans provide for the possibility of charging a lower VAT rate. With reparations and new-fangled proposals of this kind, we will not achieve a sufficiently effective and decisive policy in Europe in a hurry, not to mention the Lisbon objectives. Surely we wanted a dynamic Europe? Let us, then, try to send out a signal that the European Parliament will make every effort to give this economic sector in Europe, which is currently in difficult waters, a shot in the arm. I do hope that we will stand united and attach more importance to the goal that we want to achieve than to these methods, which may be needed just once to make true progress."@en1
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