Mr President, I too would like to start by saying something about the question of whether economic legislation is in some way neutral and capable of being separated from other aspects. We have an example in the field of the so-called Utilities Directive where legislation can achieve widely different effects whilst appearing to be neutral. If we say that the Directive applies to operations in municipal hands but not to those that are contracted out, we have then made enterprises with the same purpose subject to completely different legal regulations, and the effects are not neutral. It was for this reason that a large and cross-party majority of the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, which does not otherwise have a reputation for particular concern for social and environmental matters, was prepared to take up these aspects in its proposals. I would like to take this opportunity to describe some of them clearly, as we did not just have discussions, but also incorporated into the present proposal significant results from the Industry Committee and also the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Our most important proposal is that, in addition to the provisions of social security and labour law, collective agreements between employers and trade unions – as our proposal still terms them – should also be adhered to at the place of performance. I believe that the Industry Committee, in order to exclude the possibility of misunderstandings, might also find the formulation 'generalised collective agreements' acceptable, especially as the proposal by the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market opens the door to other misunderstandings. We must in any case make one thing clear, and I say this with reference to the Member State from which I come. We cannot have elements of the political spectrum there fomenting fears for the labour market on the grounds of the forthcoming eastward enlargement, while some of us in this House are engaged in opening the doors and thus possibly justifying their fears. We must not leave ourselves open to that reproach. I also welcome the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market’s acceptance of our demand that enterprises be liable to exclusion from the tendering procedure if they fail to comply with the provisions of the law on tariffs and other social security and labour law in the State of establishment or another affected country. We have incorporated in the Utilities Directive and in the draft under consideration today two important items of potential significance to municipal enterprises, one stating that associated or joint companies with at least a 50% average share in turnover shall be excluded from the scope of the Directive. That is in the text as well. The other states that the supply of energy and fuel shall be excluded from the scope of this Directive, thus maintaining the current status quo against the background of the varying states of liberalisation prevailing in the European Union, and avoiding the situation I described at the beginning of my speech in which operations belonging to municipalities are treated differently from contracted-out enterprises. We are also in favour of postal services being covered by this Directive – not all kinds of postal service though, but only those for which there is as yet no free competition. If my observation on the subject of tariffs is also included in the final vote, and if the points on which I have enlarged are taken into account, then that is a result with which I think the Industry Committee will be very satisfied.

Political group: PSE