Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-21-Speech-1-044-000"
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"en.20120521.14.1-044-000"2
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"Madam President, when I was young 20 years ago, I was not actually that keen on the introduction of the internal market. I thought it would only benefit capital and not be of much benefit to the people, to citizens. Fortunately, however, I have changed my mind about the internal market since then. I have seen it in action, and I have to say that today, the internal market has become the engine of EU cooperation. The internal market has contributed to growth, to jobs and to prosperity for the EU’s citizens.
It is important that this continues in the future. That is why we have to ensure that the internal market functions even better in the future. That requires us to do more than we are doing at present, however. In fact, I am a bit annoyed that the Council is not here to listen to the debate, because one of the things that I feel is important is that the Member States realise that they have a huge responsibility to ensure that the legislation made in the internal market is correctly transposed.
As Mr Busuttil said, it appears that there are countries that are doing this really well. If all the EU Member States were like Malta, we would have a pretty well functioning internal market. As far as I can see, then, it is largely about whether the Member States have the will to do it. That is what we need to improve.
We have to do it better, because if we do not do it better, then we will lose our citizens’ and our businesses’ support for the internal market. We are already making a mockery of our farmers, who are complying with the requirements by having built new housing for their egg-laying hens. We are making a mockery of them because at the same time, we in effect allow eggs to be sold on the internal market that come from hens housed in accommodation that does not comply with the requirements. We are also creating distrust among consumers, who are finding that they cannot be confident that the products they buy on the internal market are safe and healthy because there are Member States that are not ensuring effective market surveillance. We are also creating legitimate dissatisfaction among workers, who find that they are being forced out of their jobs because the authorities are not capable of ensuring fair competition.
We can do better, if we want to do better. In my opinion, the scoreboard is a really good example of this. It is a tool that shows us where the problems lie and what we can do about them. I also agree with Mr Busuttil’s idea of creating fast-track proceedings to deal with those cases in which Member States are not properly adhering to the rules. Getting EU legislation transposed should not take a long time. It is not being done quickly enough at the moment. There are other things that can be done, too. As the Commissioner said, there is the task force that travels around the capitals of the Member States and helps countries improve their transposition of EU legislation.
I would therefore like to express my thanks for a good report and for the work that has been done. We can do better, and I think it is important that we use the 20th anniversary to show our citizens that the internal market is there for them, not the other way round."@en1
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