Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-07-23-Speech-5-022"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-07-23"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:French Football Federation fine2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19990723.3.5-022"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-07-23-Speech-5-0232
lpv:speaker	lp:Sir Graham Watson2
lpv:spoken text	"Madam President, our former Belgian Socialist colleague, Mr De Coene, and I led the group of 30 MEPs who took the case to the High Court in Paris last year. The tribunal there found in our favour. They found that the European law had been broken by the CFO. They dismissed our case on a technicality, finding that we were inadmissible as litigants. But we took action because we were not convinced that the European Commission was standing up for the rights of the European citizen. As a result of our action, we were assured by Commissioner Van Miert that the Commission would prosecute this to the very end. That action, as Mr Perry has pointed out, cost us individually more than EUR 1000 each. Members of this House are sick at the fine that has been imposed by the European Commission on the CFO. I can well imagine why Commissioner Van Miert did not want to come here personally to make this statement today. This is not the first time that the World Cup organisers have rigged the sales of tickets against the ordinary football fan. But it is the first time that they have trumpeted their tournament as the first billion-dollar World Cup. They have made millions out of discriminatory sales arrangements. If the Commission had pursued this abuse of Article 82 as rigorously as it pursues abuses in other areas of industry then this fine would have been not £600 but £6m or more. The Commissioner tells us that the interests of consumers were harmed but that this had no serious effect on the market. I suggest to the Commissioner that it has a very serious effect on the European Union's reputation. He tells us that there was nothing to guide the CFO. What about the fine that the Commission imposed on the Italian organisers of the World Cup in 1990, a fine which was, in fact, larger than the fine that is imposed on the CFO this year? What about the exchange of correspondence between the CFO and the European Commission which started the previous July? Unlike Mr Ford, who represents the Southwest but supports Manchester City, I do not support any football club, but I do support the right of the European citizen to be protected from discriminatory practices and the abuse of a dominant market position. I support the European Union in developing its role to protect those citizens. To me, this fine sends to the European citizen the message that Europe is on the side of big business and not on the side of the ordinary man or woman in the street. In my view, this is a sad-and-sorry ending to a sad-and-sorry Commission. I hope that our new Commissioners, when they have been approved in September, will have rather more backbone in taking up this kind of case on behalf of the people of Europe. (Applause )"@en1
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Liberal Democrat Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 chair; Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; Conference of Committee Chairs (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member_of_the_bureau; ELDR (1999-07-20--2002-01-15)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Watson (ELDR)"1

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