Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-22-Speech-3-425"
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"en.20090422.56.3-425"2
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"That is an intriguing question. We are major players, looking at the playing field as a whole, but we are aware that there are a couple of other players, and that they are not always behaving as we want them to behave.
Having said that, Mr President, there are at any rate a couple of bodies on which we are doing our utmost to put this very point the honourable Member has raised on the agenda: during the G20 meeting in London for instance, where it was a very important point for discussion, but also during our involvement in the WTO Round; and I think it makes sense that we are pushing and just trying to get the point accepted by all of the players.
I am proud to say that more than a hundred member states are involved in the same type of competition policy as the one we favour, so it is not only us. We are in close contact, sometimes via official agreements, sometimes via bilateral agreements, to try to get a line all over the globe.
Certainly with the new US Administration we are just starting again, and we do have excellent cooperation lines with our counterparts in Washington, such as the FTC and the DOJ.
So that is the main issue, but if you would allow me to go off at a tangent to your question a little, it is also about protectionism: that would be the devil in our midst and we should fight to prevent it becoming a reality. For protectionism is outdated, it is incompatible with the single market and it is indeed a very bad tool for enabling our citizens, our consumers, and our business worlds to be successful on that fair level playing field.
It is of course the Member States that are responsible for efforts in the employment and social areas, and they have to take their decisions on how this option of opening up the state aid rules a little can be fitted in.
The Commission would also like to point out that the structural funds – and that was what I was touching upon in an earlier question when we were dealing with the Polish shipyards – and in particular the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund, can be used by the Member States to cushion the social consequences of job losses, and furthermore the use of the European globalisation fund can be considered under certain conditions."@en1
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