Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-15-Speech-3-017"
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"en.20061115.3.3-017"2
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"Mr President, the services sector is responsible for almost 70% of the European Union’s GDP and is the main source of economic growth. There are, however, thousands of administrative obstacles to the development of this sector.
The main aim of the Services Directive is to cut this red tape, which would then facilitate the provision of cross-border services on the markets of the 25 Member States. The European Commission has identified over 90 obstacles which service providers, such as mechanics, accountants and IT specialists, have to overcome in order to carry out their activities in another Member State.
As a rule, these difficulties are deliberately created by countries which fear competition from entrepreneurs from other states and want to protect their own markets at any price. This is usually at the cost of the consumer, who is offered services that are more expensive and of lower quality.
Even in its watered down form, the Services Directive is a step in the right direction along the long and tortuous road of making the European economy competitive and making life simpler, especially for small businesses. The years ahead will show whether it will, as Commissioner McCreevy claims will be the case, become a milestone in terms of removing the obstacles to the provision of services on the internal market. We will only know the outcome when the Member States integrate the Directive into national law in a way which really will minimise these obstacles, which are incompatible with the principle of the free provision of services enshrined in the Treaty, and which are damaging to European consumers and entrepreneurs.
The European Commission should play a significant role in this matter and should act as a guardian to ensure compliance with the Treaties and with European legislation. Fortunately, we have managed to avoid further corruption of the Services Directive by rejecting, at the sitting of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, all the amendments tabled by the rapporteur, Mrs Gebhardt. Further watering down the Services Directive, which was ratified by the Council and is a difficult compromise anyway, would not only be harmful for the free services market, but could also result in the entire project being scrapped and in three years of hard work being wasted."@en1
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