Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would naturally like to thank the Commissioner for her announcement and for the prospect of a Green Paper. However, I do not often find myself in complete agreement with what Mr Langen has said. My group is particularly disappointed with the Commission’s reluctance to proceed with presenting the European Parliament with a framework directive. As you yourself said, services of general interest are the cornerstone of our European social model. I am talking about people’s social rights, basic facilities such as water, energy, public transport, communication and healthcare, which are furthermore essential for social cohesion and for the proper functioning of our economies. My group, and in fact the whole of Parliament, has been pressing for this framework directive for years. Even the Council is ahead of the Commission, as the Council pressed for this framework directive in Nice and then much more explicitly in Barcelona. Despite this, the Commission insists on broad consultation first via a Green Paper in the spring of 2003. I understand that the problems surrounding services of general interest are complex. I understand the differences in approach between the Member States. I know that there are public and private players involved, and it is therefore true that there are differences depending on the sector. However, in the meantime we are constantly being confronted with standpoints concerning the liberalisation of various sectors in the economy without having a framework directive that sets out the general principles. Let there be no misunderstanding: my group is in favour of the internal market, subject to certain social and ecological adjustments. However, the market is an instrument, and the market has its limits, and when it comes to people’s basic social rights, it is not the rules of the market and competition that should be laying down the rules of play. The Green Paper will furthermore arrive too late to contribute to the discussion in the Convention about the role of services of general interest. We are already holding this discussion at this moment. We will be completing it in February, and the Commission will not be presenting a Green Paper until March. I think that the Commission will be missing the boat. Finally, there is one last reason, one fact that causes me great concern, and that has to do with Mr Langen's comments. So far the Commission has always assumed that Member States were allowed to finance their services of general interest as a social mandate without this being regarded as illicit state support – and rightly so, in my opinion. However, the Treaty is undeniably lacking in clarity. Recent conclusions by two advocates-general at the European Court of Justice have demonstrated that this principle is no longer above suspicion. The Commission will now obviously conclude that they cannot give legal security to Member States in the area of the financing of services of general interest. So what has happened to this much-vaunted autonomy to organise their own public services? Ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion is clear to us. Firstly, we will immediately ask the Commission to issue a framework directive, as we have repeatedly done. Secondly, the Convention must provide the opportunity to establish the basic principles of public services with complete respect for the powers of the Member States. Thirdly, our constitution must clearly specify that services of general interest are our people’s social rights and must not be left to market rules and competition. I hope that the Commission can support us in our ambitions. (Applause)

Political group: PSE