Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-10-Speech-3-280"
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"en.20040310.8.3-280"2
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".
Mr President, I am sorry I was not here for the initial part of that very passionate diatribe against liberalisation. I am here wearing two hats. First of all I have had the pleasure to shadow Mr Miller on this report in my own committee, as well as producing the report from the Committee on Industry, during which time we have undertaken the job that we were asked to do, which was to comment on the Commission's strategy document.
Mr Miller produced a very interesting report, with much of which I disagreed. I am pleased to say that the committee shared my view and therefore we have substantially improved it in committee. I very much hope and indeed encourage the House to approve our version of the report tomorrow because it addresses a number of the issues that the Commission asked us to address and it was not intended as the forerunner of the PSE Group's manifesto for the forthcoming elections.
I want to pick up one or two points, but first I must respond briefly to what Mr Miller said. The internal market has been one of the biggest successes of the European Union. I had the privilege of speaking when Mr Bolkestein produced the ten-year report on the single market last year, and we have seen the figures on that which, I am pleased to say, were included in my report to this committee. They were challenged by some people who do not accept the fact that markets deliver jobs, deliver economic prosperity and therefore deliver the sort of social benefits that Mr Miller was advocating so eloquently earlier on.
The core of European social policy is having a thriving and active economy. This is because we made the single market work, because we have stimulated competition and, yes, because we have liberated those privatised sleeping giants of state industries and subjected them to competition, which has expanded choice and reduced costs to consumers. Mr Miller and colleagues need only look at the report from the Commission, look at what has happened to energy costs and to telecommunications costs, to see what can be done.
I do not want to get too hung up on water. I am interested to see that this is a tremendous preoccupation of colleagues on the other side of the House. It is referred to here but actually the Commission makes it absolutely clear that policy on ownership is not an issue. Yet there is no doubt at all that there is a lot of scope for improving the efficiency and delivery of water services. You only have to look at the immense discrepancy in the cost of water to communities across the European Union to see that something needs to be done about it. That is all we are asking for and that is what we, by way of my Amendment No 1, hope colleagues will support tomorrow.
In my concluding remarks I would like to comment on one or two points. I would like to congratulate the Commission on producing for the first time a three-year perspective with a clear view forward and a series of important and coherent policies to make the single market work better. I would like to congratulate it on putting a higher priority on delivering what we have, on enforcing the measures in the single market, on improving mutual recognition, which I agree with the Commission is entirely at the foundation and the heart of the single market project. That is going to give us an important perspective. I hope, with colleagues in the next Parliament, we will be here to revisit it.
In conclusion, this is an excellent report. I want to thank the Commissioner for taking on board so much of the previous internal market committee report, for which I had the privilege of being a rapporteur. I am pleased to say that colleagues in my committee have agreed with the amendments and we have adjusted the report to reflect a continuation of what I did before, not the retrogressive views of the rapporteur in this instance. Thank you for this report. We look forward to working with you to deliver the continued benefits for all citizens in the European Union."@en1
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