Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-027"
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"en.20050413.2.3-027"2
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"Mr President, when we assess the results of the European Council we are forced, unfortunately, to conclude that discussion of the Services Directive occupied centre stage there. The result of debate on the Services Directive, which the Commission in its former composition has bequeathed as its legacy, is noticeably diminishing enthusiasm for the attainability of the Lisbon Strategy goals as rewritten by the current Commission. The directive was intended to increase competition in sectors which are open to competition, in order to gain consumers, and provides support to small and medium-sized enterprises for whom cross-border operations are at the moment impossible. In its proposed wording, the directive was rejected as a threat to Europe’s social model. To a surprising degree, most of the criticism was directed towards the application of the country of origin principle to the provision of services. This is the guiding principle in all internal market legislation and the European Court of Justice has consistently upheld it in its decisions. The Commission is losing one of the few existing instruments at its disposal and what is currently one of the most important cornerstones of the reinvigorated Lisbon Strategy. Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact from an economic viewpoint is understandable, but would be fully justifiable only if the European Union were a unified state. As they say, it is difficult for the hungry man to understand a man who has eaten well. Thus, the Stability and Growth Pact, which was adopted in good times, is inconvenient in difficult times. In the good times the policy designers lacked the will to save up for a rainy day, and in the bad times the wish to carry out structural reforms is lacking, so no alternative remains but to change the terms of the pact. Reforming the pact reduces Member States’ fiscal discipline and does not encourage them to improve it in good times. The difficulties created by a weaker common currency and higher lending rates will, however, be shared by all the Member States, including those which behaved well during both the good and the bad times. The decisions of the European Council will have a knock-on effect in every respect. I would like to hope that the attitude towards the Lisbon Strategy will differ from the Council’s reception of the Services Directive, that the positive aspects included within the Lisbon Strategy will provide the hoped-for impetus, and that a lack of fiscal discipline and of structural reforms will not endanger the European social model."@en1
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