Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-20-Speech-2-288"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2008-05-20"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Misleading 'Directory companies' (e.g. 'European City Guides') (debate)2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20080520.26.2-288"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2008-05-20-Speech-2-2892
lpv:speaker	lp:Diana Wallis2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, many thanks to Mrs McCarthy and the Internal Market Committee for presenting this question. I could wish that we had had a rather more robust answer from the Council, I have to say. The situation is absolutely unacceptable and I am going to start by making a confession. In the early 1980s, I was a lawyer in the UK, but I founded a practice with a lawyer in Germany. We started getting these demands that we had advertised our practice in a European City Guide and, even as a lawyers, we felt harassed and frightened. So if lawyers feel frightened by these people, I am sure ordinary small SMEs must. But the oddity of this is that EU law ought to be able to provide an answer and it is seemingly failing to do so, even after 20, 30 years that this has been going on. Indeed, if you read some of the letters from these people, they are even quoting EU law back at people to harass them even further as victims. And what do we get from the Council? I am sorry, it is not good enough: well, we might look at misleading advertising and we will think about it. Thirty years on we really need something more. What are people meant to do? We need a thoroughgoing debate about whether we should redefine who and what is a consumer. We tried to raise it during the discussions on contract law. We need to go further and deeper if we are going to deal with this problem. Lastly, if the Member States are too timid or too frightened to deal with this, let me make another suggestion that perhaps is a little contentious here. If the Commission gives us a substantial system of collective redress, let us call it class actions, then maybe citizens will be able to take action themselves if nobody else will do it for them. Now there is a thought."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	vice-president; European Parliament (2007-01-16--2009-07-13)3 member_of_the_bureau; ALDE (2007-02-27--2009-07-13)3 member; JURI (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3 member; PETI (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3 substitute; IMCO (2007-01-31--2009-07-13)3 member; Delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee (2007-09-05--2009-07-13)3 vice-president; Parliament's Bureau (2007-01-16--2009-07-13)3 unknown; Liberal Democrat Party (2004-07-20--2009-07-13)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Diana Wallis,"1 "on behalf of the ALDE Group"1

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