Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-04-Speech-3-277"
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"en.20080604.27.3-277"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by congratulating Mr Audy on the top quality report he has produced, both in terms of the ideas contained therein and the proposals it makes.
In actual fact, customs, as the report explicitly says, are a multifunctional tool nowadays. They play a fiscal role, their original role, but they also play an economic role and an ever increasing role in terms of protecting the security of European businesses and European consumers.
From an economic point of view, they naturally have to facilitate international trade and the European Union has every interest in seeing this happen. Yet they also have to focus on their security role, in terms of thwarting and fighting against counterfeiting and piracy, combating situations of totally unfair competition that undermine some European businesses, especially in weaker sectors and in terms of protecting the environment and public health, which are assets that our communities are increasingly coming to appreciate. This is why we need to make more headway.
The proposal outlined by the rapporteur is, in our view, a good one, as it follows the line of promoting harmonisation of the customs system. We have a community trade policy and a community customs policy, but we then have a series of national administrations that do not always work together in the most appropriate way. To ensure that the interests of European producers and consumers are protected, it would be advantageous if we could progress more quickly towards harmonisation. Progress through new practices, establishing better coordination and creating conditions for the effective harmonisation of customs administration at Community level. We shall therefore be doing European citizens a good service, both from the viewpoint of producers and consumers.
There is also an issue that I believe to be very important and that relates to small and medium-sized enterprises, and that is also addressed in the report and was tackled by the previous speaker. Our small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly vulnerable in situations where we fall prey to unfair competition and our customs system is not always ready to deal successfully with such risks. We therefore need to invest heavily in this and improve coordination with small and medium-sized enterprises themselves. They are not always experts on the rules and procedures, and are therefore at a disadvantage in terms of their ability to access international trade.
I shall end as I began, by congratulating the author of this report, that I believe has done Europe a service in this specific and very important field of the customs system."@en1
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