Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-06-Speech-4-208"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060706.31.4-208"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today's debate enables us to make two contrasting observations to the Commission.
On the one hand, in fact, we condemn the fact that the Commission did not inform Parliament of the initiatives undertaken with regard to origin marking. This constitutes a breach of the Interinstitutional Framework Agreement of 26 May 2005, and I do not believe that a justification citing Article 133 of the Treaty can be accepted.
On the other hand, however, the content of the proposal, on which Parliament has nevertheless succeeded today in issuing its opinion, enables me to express the support of my entire group for a long-awaited initiative that has already been warmly praised in the past by Italy’s centre-right government. Yet, it is an initiative that some people still insist on not supporting, demonstrating political short-sightedness and a lack of interest in consumers.
Origin marking for certain categories of highly important products, from footwear to clothing, is wrongly seen by some people and in some sectors as a measure that has the same effect as trade barriers. That is not so; one need only point out precisely that famous Article 133 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Article 9 of the GATT and the recent opinion of the Council’s Legal Service.
What is more, major trade partners and competitors of the Union, such as the United States, China, Japan and Canada, have equipped themselves with legislation on this matter. By adopting a regulation on origin marking, Europe too would at last be putting itself on an equal footing with the countries mentioned above, and be preventing unjustified discrimination that would heavily penalise not only European producers, but especially all consumers, including non-European consumers.
The origin marking of products represents a guarantee for consumers that they are finally in a position to link their choices to safety and quality assessments, in addition to assessments of the social and environmental conditions existing in the country in which the products originate. We need to proceed with transparency and clarity, criteria that are demanded by everyone but then all too often ignored.
We call on the Commission to do everything in its power to ensure that the Member States adopt a determined approach to consumer protection, which can be guaranteed only by the rules in force within the Union, rules that protect quality and safety, and by the label of origin, which guarantees that no one, either inside or outside the EU, can bypass those criteria.
We call on the Commission subsequently to monitor the application of the rules, in terms both of labels of origin and of product composition, and we are grateful to the Commission for its swift action, because the swifter the action, the greater the protection of our fellow citizens."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples