Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-10-Speech-1-094"
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"en.20050110.14.1-094"2
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".
Madam President, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr Newton Dunn, who has taken over what we hope will be the rapporteurship for the second reading, for encouraging us to work together to move this question. It was a shame we could not get the whole committee's support, but it is nevertheless important that we give you, Commissioner, the opportunity to hear where we stand on this.
I would like to reflect on one or two points, to build on what Mr Newton Dunn said about the economic importance of this issue. Those of us who want to push for the completion of the internal market as the cornerstone of the Lisbon Strategy, as set out in the Kok Report and in so many reports from the Council, would like you to tell us from the inside why it is that Member State governments, whose prime ministers attend these great Council meetings and make statements about the importance of completing the internal market – and particularly the internal market for services – are extraordinarily reluctant, when invited to give consumers the opportunity to access sales promotions, discount offers and other product promotions offered in another country of the European Union, to make these available to their own consumers?
I pay tribute to Mr Brinkhorst, the Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs, because I know he took the Sales Promotion Regulation very seriously and was equally baffled about the lack of progress. I recall that he told our committee that we had surely reached the stage in the development of the internal market where Member States have to start trusting each other. What could be more fundamental when asking for trust than saying that consumer protection legislation which allows sales promotions in one country, is equally applicable to another?
How can the attitudes of consumers in one country to promotions which they are allowed to access, whether it is a discount promotion or a promotional game, or an annual sale at a certain time, differ from those in another? We have an extraordinary situation in which, within markets that are very close together, there are different conditions in stores because of different sales promotion regulations.
The bafflement that has led to this question arises from wondering how Member States can say they are serious about creating an internal market and serious about having a single regulation on unfair commercial practices, when they are unwilling to allow consumers to access these rights and trust each other. That is the fundamental question.
Commissioner, I imagine you are as baffled about it as we are. Together we may be able to solve some of the problems."@en1
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