Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-03-Speech-3-354"
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"en.20080903.26.3-354"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first like to thank the rapporteur for the quality of her report. It has given us the opportunity for a new in-depth debate on trade in services. We have been able to define convergences and identify some points for discussion. We will see whether these constitute serious divergences at the end of the debate and the vote.
Whether we are talking about the internal market or external trade, we agree on the fact that the services market accounts for the largest share in the creation of wealth and a quarter of world trade. It is indeed possible that this economic sector still has growth potential for the European Union. It is therefore legitimate to include the services market in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. However, we will have to define the principles and terms of the market for trade in services.
The first point my group wishes to highlight is that a distinction must be made between the services market and the goods market. Services are not like goods, for a number of reasons. Firstly, services are not of the same nature; some are linked to fundamental needs and rights. We very much believe in the need to make a distinction between commercial and non-commercial services, whether in healthcare or education. Vital services such as water and energy must also be thought of as having a special status.
Services are not like goods because trade in them often very directly involves human endeavour and not just the virtual trading of a technology. Although they potentially create jobs, they are also the sector in which we find the most informal employment and the greatest precarity. I am therefore delighted that the report states that the rules of trade must respect the employment standards drawn up by the ILO. In our development goals we must also fight against precarity and poverty.
Finally, we have not lost sight of the Doha objectives and international trade as a vector of development. This notion commits us to taking account of the differing interests of the Member States and developing countries when negotiating commitment schedules and economic partnership agreements. The European Union must take account of the stages of development, pace and wishes of countries when opening up services markets, particularly when liberalising some of their services. I am thinking particularly of financial services. Exerting pressure on third countries over their way of conceiving of and regulating their services is out of the question. The sovereignty of these countries must be respected when it comes to issues as sensitive as public services and financial services.
I do not know if we will reach a total consensus on this question. It is possible that this is a subject that divides right from left in this Parliament."@en1
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