Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-17-Speech-1-134"

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"Madam President, Commissioner, I welcome the way in which Mrs Kauppi, in her revised report, has moved away from her negative stance. Mrs Kauppi, you are quite right to say that the Commission proposal leaves room for improvement, but I cannot be satisfied with the outcome of the vote in the lead committee, which rejected it. With this proposal for harmonising the taxation of diesel fuel used for commercial purposes, the Commission has taken a courageous step in the right direction, one in which the lead committee was not prepared to join it, thus ignoring the recommendations in its favour in the opinions of the advisory committees. In essence, the Commission proposal has two ends in mind. It envisages disentangling the tax rules on fuels, for commercial purposes on the one hand and for private use on the other, and, secondly, duties on diesel fuel in commercial use are to be harmonised, the object being to avoid distortions of competition. Competition, though, is distorted not only when rates of duty are not harmonised, but also because drivers work and drive for different periods of time. That should not, however, be a reason to reject the proposal, but rather a reason for improving it. After all, Parliament has always encouraged and endorsed measures aimed at opening up markets and making competition fair. Harmonisation is, moreover, intended to avoid the customary detours and the damage to the environment that results from them. It cannot be denied that ‘gasoline tourism’ is commonplace nowadays, and it is partly responsible for the damage to the environment. So how do things now stand with the outcome? Firstly, it does not get to grips with the alignment of competition conditions in the transport business, which is so urgently needed. Secondly, this decision amounts to a retrograde step in terms of environmental policy as well. This is lamentable, and it is my belief that it would have made sense, particularly at the present time, for the Commission to improve its proposal in order to tackle the deplorable state of affairs to which I have referred."@en1

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