Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-10-25-Speech-4-018-000"
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"en.20121025.11.4-018-000"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, when we discuss the single market there is one thing we should remember, which is that the founding fathers in the 1950s based the political ambition of being together and at peace – that is why they have just received a Nobel Prize, in a sense posthumously – on an economic project, an interest, a need to come together through the economy. Thus the European Coal and Steel Community, the Common Market, and then the common policies and the single market were born.
The second prong of our action, of this proactive, dynamic approach, is to remove the obstacles that are obstructing the coherence of this large market. This is what we wanted to do in the wake of the Grech and Monti reports, through a series of operational measures, measures to help the drivers of the economy, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and consumers.
That was the Single Market Act. I monitor its implementation very carefully and very frequently, especially as regards the first phase, Single Market Act I. I was pleased that on 14 June you approved a resolution calling for the rapid adoption of the main measures in Single Market Act I. Mr Van Rompuy, on behalf of the European Council, also wrote to the Heads of State or Government to highlight the urgency of this. As far as possible we should try to produce good texts for the first reading, which meet people’s expectations.
I have a few short messages to broadcast on key issues for growth and competitiveness.
The unitary patent: the Cypriot Presidency is currently dealing with this, and I am grateful for that. All the Member States should be making a final effort to reach a position where they can support the proposed compromises on the last point still under discussion. I would like to thank the chair, Mr Lehne, as well as Mr Rapkay and Mr Baldassarre, for their efforts towards achieving this compromise.
Investors are awaiting texts on venture capital and social enterprise. We have one last point to deal with. I am going to suggest that the Council Presidency, the Cypriot Presidency, and the rapporteur arrange a meeting to find a solution to the legitimate question of tax havens, and we will thus have two new tools to encourage venture capital funding throughout the European Union and support businesses in the social economy, the ‘solidarity economy’.
As regards public procurement, for which Mr Tarabella is rapporteur – and I would like to thank him and the shadow rapporteurs – we are close to an agreement aimed at simplifying access to public procurement contracts, and qualifying public money and putting it to better use with an excellent method for public procurement and concessions.
There is the issue of professional qualifications. The European Council is working on this too, and so are the rapporteurs, Ms Vergnaud and the shadow rapporteurs. I think we will be able to reach agreement on this item, at the latest by the start of 2013, particularly on the excellent idea, which you support, of the mobility of professional cards.
Because there is no time to lose, because there are so many other problems as you said, Ms Bastos, the Commission – 10 or so of my colleagues, that is, not just me – has just proposed the Single Market Act II containing further priorities, further areas in which we need to make the single market work better. These are the transport and energy networks, which are the arteries of the single market, as well as mobility, businesses, and the digital economy.
There is one last thing that for me is one of the conditions of sustainable growth, social cohesion and consumer confidence. In a few weeks’ time I will be presenting a proposal on a basic bank account and the transparency of bank account fees, as you unanimously asked me to do.
So we are working together and we are taking this proactive and dynamic approach. We still need the things we have already done to be implemented, as the rapporteur, Mr Schwab, whom I thank, and the chair, Mr Harbour, so often say. For us it is a question of credibility. I therefore share the concern of guaranteeing the good governance of the single market. Mr Schwab is going to make some proposals about this, on which my work will based, and also the Commission’s agenda, which I have described as ‘zero tolerance’.
We are not only the inheritors of this, but also the players in it, particularly over the last 20 years since the single market was agreed in 1992.
Every year, at the same time as the European Semester, we will be publishing indicators for the implementation of all the directives and regulations related to the internal market, particularly the Services Directive, which is a very important one and which has not been correctly applied. The idea of this is to see how far each country has got with transposition and implementation. I am determined that the texts you adopt will be applied. That is the job you should be asking the Commission to do; I can assure you that that is what I will be doing.
I said at the start that the single market was the first and most important part of the political project of Europe. We are accountable for the smooth running of the single market. It is my firm belief that, to win the battle for growth and competitiveness, every citizen is necessary, and so is every business, and every country and region too. It is for these citizens, businesses and regions, from which new growth will come, that we are collectively responsible for ensuring the success of this new phase, over the next 20 years of the European single market.
You were quite right in saying, Ms Bastos, that because of the crisis and because of the suffering and the anger felt by many citizens, right now this anniversary should not be a time for smugness, still less sadness or nostalgia. This anniversary is a time for us to be proactive and dynamic, for us to look at what has not worked, put it right and move on.
I firmly believe – and I know that many of you share this view – that the battle for growth and competitiveness does not boil down to the single market, but that the single market is an essential condition for meeting the challenge of sustainable growth and competitiveness. The market has to be coherent. It has to be as solid as the ground under our feet, so that everything we build on it, the private initiatives of businesses large and small, the initiatives of Member States and local communities in the EU, is as effective as possible. The challenge for us today is to look together at how we can make this ground, the basis of Europe’s economy, more solid and coherent for our citizens, consumers and businesses.
This is why today’s debate is important: because it is both about citizens keeping an eye on that top 20 and about our undertaking, which is the Single Market Act.
On the issue of the top 20, my sincere thanks go to Ms Bastos for her constant watch and for having identified these 20 main concerns. The idea originally came from the report by Louis Grech two years ago, and also from our discussions at the Single Market Forum in Kraków.
I agree with the main points of this report and I think that any tools that can bring the internal market closer to citizens – which we are working on together in Strasbourg and Brussels – are very important. SOLVIT, which is now starting to work well and has solved a lot of problems through mediation, is now up and running. The Your Europe website, with its rising hit rate (I am told that it has 14 000 visitors a day, thanks particularly to the launch of its mobile app), is a good source of reference in the social media.
These are the kinds of tool that citizens, firstly consumers, small businesses and savers, need.
I think we will need to make more of them because citizens are expecting more, in practical terms, as you so rightly said, Ms Bastos, and that is what the consultation we did on the websites also told us."@en1
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