Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-02-19-Speech-2-012"
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"en.20080219.5.2-012"2
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"Madam President, I have four minutes, so I would like to make four points. My first point is not that it is Malcolm Harbour’s birthday, but it is, so we should congratulate him.
The first point is a vote of thanks because, where a legislative package such as this one is concerned, there is no way one can push it through alone. So my first thanks go to Mr Brie and Ms Schaldemose, whom I would almost call my co-rapporteurs. Working with you has been a lot of fun. This was a first legislative package for me as well, and has shown that things can work quite well. I would also like to thank my shadow rapporteurs, especially Ms De Vits, Ms Rühle and Mr Manders. Working with you has also been a lot of fun. Then I would like to thank the three Presidencies that have been involved. The first was Frank Wetzel and the German Presidency. They did an excellent job. The second was Fernanda and the Portuguese Presidency. They too did a fantastic job and then, thirdly, the Slovenians have shown why new Presidencies and small country Presidencies are so fantastic. You did a great job as well, so thank you very much, Vinka. I would especially like to thank the Commission, Commissioner Verheugen and Simon Mordue, on the political side, and then on the floor, so to speak, I would like to thank Hans, Liliana and especially Mr Ayral, to whom André has already referred. Unfortunately, Mr Ayral passed away rather suddenly. If I had a choice I would call this the Ayral package in tribute to his work, because he was a fantastic European civil servant, of the type we need. My final thanks go to Luca from the Legal Service, to Patricia from the Secretariat and especially to my assistant Tuomas, who has worked so hard that he has a knee injury. In other words, his left knee does not mutually recognise his right any more and he is not able to be here today. He has been the soul behind this whole package.
My second point is to ask what the background is to mutual recognition. To put it simply, we had the Cassis de Dijon decision in 1979. Since then we have had 300 court cases to show that mutual recognition does not work. Seventy-five per cent of goods are harmonised, and twenty-five percent are not. The harmonised proportion amounts to EUR 1 500 billion, or in other words EUR 1.5 trillion, and the non-harmonised proportion to EUR 500 billion. Of that EUR 500 billion, there are problems relating to EUR 150 billion. The Commission tells us that, if mutual recognition worked, our GDP would go up by 1.8%. The Commission brought forward a good proposal. Unfortunately, the Member States tried to water it down, but fortunately we in the European Parliament protected the interests of the internal market and pushed through an ambitious package.
The third point is to ask what we did. What were the procedural matters that we changed? To put it in simple terms, until now it took a small, medium-sized or large company two to three years to fight a case on mutual recognition in court. That is not really necessary any more, because we have shifted the burden of proof to the Member States. Basically, in a procedure lasting 20 to 60 days, the Member State has to provide – and I stress the word
that a particular rule does not apply in another Member State. So we have shifted the burden of proof. What I want to say to all small and medium-sized businesses in Europe is that there is no need ever again to fill in a form to apply to enter the market of another country. No, the goods move freely. Call us, call me, if you have a problem. You should not be having to apply.
The fourth and final point I wanted to make is about practical cases, and the areas to which this applies. The answer is bicycles, scaffolding, fire alarms, bread and plant-based products, and so forth. The principle of mutual recognition applies to a huge market. So my final point, having said my thanks and given a background to procedural changes and practical cases, is that European firms should never again have to let a product be prevented from entering another country’s market."@en1
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"evidence"1
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