Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-14-Speech-2-223"
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"en.20060214.26.2-223"2
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"Madam President, first of all I would like to offer you my sincere thanks for arranging for three Austrians to speak just before the break. It is a tribute to the Presidency. That is how I see it, at any rate.
Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner McCreevy, the Commission President and Minister Bartenstein are in fact right when they say that Thursday’s vote will be a very important vote, both for the development of the market in services and of the internal market in general and for the question of enlargement. That these two matters coincide has of course given rise to much anxiety that competition will now increase or there will be social undercutting. Our criticism of the directive in its present form was in fact that it will produce those very things. I do believe, however, and everyone must be convinced of this, that we have committed ourselves to the internal market as one of the instruments of European Union, and we must progressively make that internal market reality. We have also committed ourselves to enlargement. That means also allowing the neighbours who have joined us to take part in this internal market without discrimination. What we must do with this directive is to make this a reality from a social point of view.
I come from a country that lies on the interface with the enlargement countries. Much of what has perhaps not yet happened formally is in fact already reality. I know there are problems, and if I use the term ‘social dumping’ I know that some of my colleagues in my own group will say that is discriminatory. I am not talking about workers, however. I am talking about a small number of businesses that use cheap labour to practise social dumping. We therefore need to prevent even a small number giving the enlargement process or the internal market a bad image, because the internal market and enlargement are good things in themselves. I am quite sure we have made progress on this.
Journalists today are asking us whether this directive will bring any benefits at all. Article 16 in particular is important as it stands, because it clearly says what can be done and what cannot be done. I agree with the Commission that things which are discriminatory should be abolished and rules that are disproportionate or unnecessary for achieving the objectives should be abolished. On the other hand, it is important to make clear that this is not a contribution to social dumping or about undermining the progress that has already been made, because no one would understand if we were to use enlargement or the internal market to block progress or undo the progress that has already been made. With this in mind, it is right and important that we should tomorrow be able to implement the compromise we have reached today. The demonstrations have helped to draw attention to this. They were after all not against a directive but for a better one.
If the presidency and the Commission help to create a better directive, then we can really be content."@en1
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