Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-21-Speech-1-170"
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"en.20050221.17.1-170"2
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".
Mr President, I do not doubt that you will be pleased to hear me say that I will keep it brief and will not inconvenience you with my husky voice for any longer than necessary, because I am afraid that as a Liberal, I have to conclude that there is not exactly a level playing field between myself and the flu virus
but that I simply have not survived the competition. The EU Treaty contains two objectives that are important to this report. The first one is that on the one hand, we have state aid rules which must ensure that the internal market operates effectively, and on the other hand, the Treaty also states that those rules must not hinder the proper functioning of public services. The internal market has brought us many benefits, in the area of public services as elsewhere. We also find that we are all very much attached to the so-called European social economic model with good public services, which has, moreover, provided us with a high level of competitiveness. The Commission’s proposals are very welcome and I am pleased to hear that Mrs Kroes’ words do no more than underline what we have written in our report, namely that we aim to reduce state aid on the one hand, and do away with unnecessary red tape, on the other, and that we are focusing on those things that really distort the internal market, which are, after all, detrimental to our economy and also, therefore, to the foundation on which public services rest.
I should like to outline a few key points. First of all, I should like to underline once again that the focus must be on the citizen as user of the services and as taxpayer. This may seem a little bit like stating the obvious, but all too often in reality, what takes priority are political interests, corporate interests, institutional interests and all kinds of other interests, to which, quite often, the interests of the individual have to give way.
The second point is the definition of what we term small services of general interest. The Commission has proposed granting those small services exemption from the obligation of prior notification for state aid and has, more or less, suggested that we use the same threshold of EUR 50 million maximum by way of annual turnover as we do for medium and small enterprises. Although the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs has, at my proposal, followed this suggestion in the first instance, I do think that we should review the practical implications in a few years’ time, because we have no idea of how many businesses, how much state aid in total, and how many applications for state aid are involved. I should therefore like to know the exact impact of that threshold. Another important point for me is evidence-based policy making. For years, we in this House have been waging traditional trench warfare between Left and Right about the liberalisation of public services. I think it is important that we should finally have the facts on the table. In the report, we therefore urge the Commission to present an up-to-date and detailed report on public services every four years, when this regulation is up for renewal.
I should like to finish off with a minor, slightly technical point. One paragraph in the report was included after we had adopted an amendment, and that paragraph seems to suggest that this House proposes that the task of offering a certain service must, in all cases, be assigned via a tendering procedure. That is not, of course, what is intended. I think that there are many people – maybe not all, but many – who will agree with me that that is, in itself, a sound procedure, and one that, in many cases, leads to sound results, but I would like to do away with the misconception that as of today, this House will decide that all services must be assigned via such a procedure. It is unfortunate that no amendments have been tabled to do away with that misconception, but I would in any event like to make this clear to the Commission in today’s plenary."@en1
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