Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, honoured visitors, the purpose of this reform of the block exemption regulation is to re-regulate the motor vehicle industry in the European Union. This proposed reform is, in my view, of real importance, including to European competition policy. This being so, Parliament has tried, in liaison with the Commission, to adopt important detailed regulations. As rapporteur, may I add that you, Commissioner Monti, held very intensive talks with Parliament, with the rapporteur and with numerous Members of this House, in a personal bid to ensure that numerous suggestions by Parliament were taken up alongside your considerations during the course of this constructive dialogue. So how do dealers in the European Union at present stand under the old block exemption regulation? What sort of agreements does the old block exemption regulation allow between dealers and the all-powerful car manufacturers? There are a number of very interesting comments we can make on the current situation. At the moment, dealers can only act for one manufacturer. At the moment, manufacturers can demand that dealers provide servicing as well as sales. At the moment, spare parts can only be sourced from the car manufacturer, not the spare part manufacturer. At the moment, car manufacturers can specify how many stock vehicles dealers must display on their forecourts. This situation clearly bears all the hallmarks of a very one-sided division of power between the dealers and the manufacturers. I think that this draft for a new block exemption regulation will provide a broader base for small and medium-sized undertakings, as well as giving consumers the opportunity to buy on better terms by improving the market situation. In future, dealers will be able to sell several makes. In future, dealers will not be obliged to offer both sales and servicing. In future, there will be more independent garages, independent repair businesses which can obtain the information needed to service and repair cars directly from the manufacturer, we have seen to that. These future advantages are all contained in this block exemption regulation. If you look at the current situation, manufacturers are sacking dealers by the dozen. I am not criticising that. Manufacturers must be free to reorganise their sales networks. But a total of 3 000 businesses have now been given their marching orders. This reform will let them stay in the market, this reform will give them the chance to continue trading. Now to the question of sales structures in the European Union. I think that the proposed sales structure, the structure proposed by Mr Monti, will give a tremendous boost to liberalisation. It represents a huge shake-up in the industry, compared with today's difficult conditions. This being the case, Parliament has proposed extending the transitional periods in order to give the market time to adjust. There will therefore be a broad majority tomorrow in favour of a proposal to extend the transitional period for the location clause to 2005. At the same time, we need a timely review clause so that we can see, given the market situation, if this location clause is still needed. The majority in Parliament is in favour of this proposal. I think that, with it, Mr Monti is assured of a broad majority in favour of his proposed reform. Commissioner, your reform proposal will receive the backing of a broad majority tomorrow. Our conclusion I think, looking at this reform at the end of this negotiation process, is that, once again, a specific industry has been granted an exemption from fair trading legislation. And I would also say that we need fewer exemptions for specific industries in future. The industry would therefore be well advised to gear itself up to the fact that there will not automatically be a follow-on regulation in 2010 and that we are working towards a time when there will no longer be any exemptions from fair trading legislation.

Political group: PPE-DE