deputising for the rapporteur. – Mr President, I am honoured to have been asked by my colleague, Mr Agag Longo, to present his excellent and detailed report to Parliament on the Commission's XXXth report on competition policy. The report draws together several important areas of competition policy. The rapporteur restates Parliament's strong support for Commissioner Monti in spelling out that effective competition is not only an important engine of economic growth but also works to the advantage of consumers, through greater variety, better quality and lower prices for both goods and services. We congratulate the Commissioner on the success of European competition policy, but we recognise that such success can only be maintained by constant and rigorous monitoring. Our rapporteur has highlighted further measures to which Parliament will be giving its attention in the coming months. The future of car distribution is one area where we eagerly await the Commission's proposals. I believe that our initial evaluations suggest that consumers are missing out under the current exemption, with unjustifiable price variations between Member States. We also await the consultation on Merger Regulation No 4064/89. We welcome Commissioner Monti's positive approach to consultation with our committee, but we repeat our call for major constitutional change which gives Parliament real codecision power with the Commission. Commissioner Monti has played the central role in fostering a global approach to competition policy and enforcement issues. Our committee supports efforts to build an international competition system in the framework of the WTO, whilst recognising that Europe's credibility in this area will depend on efficient and effective cooperation between the EU's own national competition authorities. We are also looking to the outcome of negotiations between the Commission and the Council on the Commission's proposals for reform of the enforcement regime under Articles 81 and 82 which we approved last month. Mr Agag Longo draws attention in his report to other important elements of Parliament's position on the reform, our strong support for Article 3 and our real concern over issues of legal certainty, as well as separation of powers. I know that Commissioner Monti is aware of this, but we have consistently argued that the Commission must guard against the danger that the reform may lead to inconsistent application or even to a renationalisation of competition policy, thereby destroying the single market. In continuing to raise these issues we reflect the concerns of many in the business community in Europe. Our committee has also underlined other competition concerns. We look to further market liberalisation, but we want effective enforcement of already agreed policy areas in the gas and the electricity sectors. The Commissioner is aware of the complaints which have been made about some acquisitions by companies which do not appear to operate in a liberalised home market and we look to the Commission to investigate whether state-aid rules have been breached in such cases. Mr Agag Longo also urges further progress on liberalisation in areas such as energy, transport and the postal services. We welcome the progress which the Commissioner has made on state aid control. We also support his work in ensuring that candidate countries for membership fully understand the requirements of EU competition policy, particularly the application and relevance of such rules in terms of market distortion. Our committee will shortly respond in fuller detail to the Commission's ninth state aid survey, but this report also touches on this area. We applaud progress on implementation of a public register of state aid and a scoreboard as important tools for promoting transparency and democratic control, even if I embarrass Commissioner Monti by saying that his practical demonstration of the scoreboard to our committee was frustrated by technical problems. We view such widespread public access to information as essential. In the same light we welcome the continuing commitment to hold competition day seminars under each Council presidency, although we are keen to see wider public knowledge of, and participation in, such events. Finally, on an entirely personal note, I would like to express my concern that the Commission has made particularly slow progress over complaints concerning the Spanish government's treatment of Gibraltar citizens in relation to telecoms matters. These complaints have been outstanding with the Commission for over five years, whilst the Commission has itself recently initiated a state aids investigation of Gibraltar's investment schemes, ordering it to cease forthwith until the Commission investigation is concluded. I am bound to say that this hardly seems to me to be an even-handed approach and I hope Commissioner Monti will agree to look into this. Otherwise I commend Mr Agag Longo's excellent report to the House.

Political group: PPE-DE