Mr President, Commissioner, the report which I have the honour to present is the result of an extraordinary collaboration – which I am grateful for – between people and committees. Allow me to make two observations: the Committee on Legal Affairs has not accepted all the suggestions of the committee asked for an opinion. We were in complete agreement with most of them and they seemed to us to be very interesting, but we consider that this resolution was not the right place for them and that, by incorporating them, its message would be less clearly expressed. That has been my criterion for recommending a vote in favour of the amendments presented in this House. I therefore insist – and the opinion of the Committee on Fisheries is a good example of this – that they have not been included in the resolution, not because I reject their content, but because the message in relation to the internal market strategy had to be clearly expressed. What was that message? That message stems from the position adopted by the Committee on Legal Affairs in our resolution of 4 November 1999. If you will allow me, Mr President, I will concentrate on three ideas. The first concern of the Committee on Legal Affairs –and I hope this House will ratify it tomorrow – is the concept of the situation of the internal market. What does the internal market mean to European construction? These days we hear the siren song of globalisation and together with that goes the idea that we are international. The internal market appears to have become very small in this new globalised economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. This document on the strategy for the internal market expresses this very clearly. The internal market is Europe’s platform in the world. The internal market embodies the key principles of a globalised economy with advantages for Europe in terms of competition. That is the first message of the Committee on Legal Affairs. We need to put the emphasis on the principles of the internal market: the principle of proportionality, the principle of mutual recognition, the principle of control of origin. These must be the great pillars upon which this strategy for the internal market is built. We will not make the headlines with this, but it is important nonetheless. The application and control of Community legislation is also important. The Member States must cooperate in this application. We must oppose procedures which are used too frequently, such as ‘gold plating’. We need to strengthen our infringement procedure, we need to consolidate it, make it more transparent and more accessible. We ask that decisions on the outcome of infringement proceedings be explained and that Parliament be informed of them. We ask that infringement cases be processed more quickly and that they be more effectively presented to the citizen. The second message of this resolution is that we need to make the present, rather disorganised laws, which the citizens see as a burden, into a genuine legislation, a coherent and clear framework of rules and regulations, without any overlapping or contradictions. These contradictions are seen by the citizen and by industry as burdens, as a lack of clarity in the message regarding the direction we are taking. Lastly, the third message is a change in the business culture in Europe. We need businesspeople who are more willing to take risks. To this end we will have to change certain laws, such as for example the European laws on insolvency in general, on the suspension of payments and bankruptcy. We need to put the emphasis on the creation of a genuine capital risk market. We need to convince young Europeans, as young Americans are already convinced, that the best option is not to join a large company, on a long-term basis, but to create new companies. In all of this, electronic commerce, the Internet and new technologies must offer a good platform. Finally, Mr President, to sum up, I hope that tomorrow, on voting for the resolution, Parliament will send a clear message. We are behind the Commission in this initiative and of course we want to participate in the whole process, permanently, cooperating, offering ideas and monitoring the situation.

Political group: PPE-DE