Mr President, we must take note of the immense amount of work put in by Mrs Wallis and her endeavours to preserve a certain balance in an extremely complex report, for we are attempting to define future scenarios which will be extremely important for all of us. This evening's debate may appear to be very technical at first sight, but it does actually contain major political elements. One of our tasks is to establish ground rules on the working of the market and regulating the relationship between two of its fundamental players: the service provider and the consumer. It is too simplistic to say that we are protecting the consumer by laying down that the applicable law and competent court are in all cases, without exception, those of consumer's place of residence. In reality, the market, especially the market of the new economy, is a complex environment where the commercial relations between the actors and the variety of different ways in which it is possible to conduct a transaction are driving out all inflexibility. Any of us, while we are here in Brussels, could buy something from Hong Kong over the Internet and have it delivered to Buenos Aires. To imagine that we can adopt a regulation laying down a fixed rule for establishing the competent court, the applicable law and the place of residence of the consumer does not, in actual fact, seem practical. If the person buying the goods were resident in Italy, it could well be of interest, for it would probably be an improvement on our Stone Age legal system. However, in our opinion, the market requires the rapid settling of potential disputes by the transferral of these disputes to alternative systems of justice where experts are called upon to find solutions. Today, new players are emerging in the construction of international market rules. Consider, for example, the influence of the large law firms and global players in international transactions. It is they who introduce new rules and new ways of settling disputes. Written law is increasingly being replaced by unwritten law, which interprets the flexibility of the markets and provides solutions to specific cases. The globalisation of markets is producing a plurality of legal systems created by the same social groups which they are intended to serve. They are an expression of the market's constant need to move forward and expand. There is interaction between regulation and self regulation. The principles of sovereignty and territoriality, on which the nation state is based are, in reality, dying out. What can businesses do, faced with the handicap of rigid regulations, especially the small- and medium-sized businesses? Either they do not operate outside their own country in order to avoid excessive legal expenditure, or they put prices up in order to offset the potential cost of disputes. At the end of the day, the cost, in the form of reduced availability of goods and services and higher prices, is borne by the consumer, who is at the mercy of our regulations. What is more, we would be holding back the economic development and increase in employment which should, apparently, come with the new economy. This is what is being advocated today by certain sections of Parliament, whose amendments display a purely demagogic approach. We do not support this approach, considering also that, in the directive on electronic commerce adopted a few months ago, we laid down rules governing the signing of on-line contracts and confirmed the validity of the principles of the internal market, rule of origin and on country control. Therefore, my group fully supports the position of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market – which tends precisely towards greater flexibility – and throws down one final challenge: legal solutions for the markets now require global responses, especially in the context of the regulation of the new economy itself. Of course, the European Union does need to produce its own model, but we must be aware that, without an international agreement, it is unlikely to be very effective.

Political group: PPE-DE