Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this too is a very important report. What is it about? It is about the fact that although the internal market in Europe is becoming ever more integrated, there are also various deficits, as we all know. The Commission, the Parliament and the Council have been trying for many years to achieve joint legislation, particularly in the field of consumer protection. In the communication on contract law which the Commission has brought forward, and which is also referred to in this report, the Commission covered in detail the position on the common body of law which already exists in the European Union, and also referred to all the directives already in existence in this field. However, if you take a closer look at these directives, you will see that they are not always necessarily consistent. It is quite conceivable for there to be a contract entered into between a purchaser and a vendor in which the purchaser may have to sign three different cancellation statements with different cancellation deadlines, because totally different deadlines are found in different directives, such as the distance-selling directive and other directives. It is pretty obvious that this does little for consumer protection and is sheer nonsense. That is why it is necessary for this common body of law to be consolidated and summarised to achieve a common result. There are many reasons why this situation has come about. It can be explained, in part, simply by the fact that within the European institutions totally different directorates-general, committees and Councils were responsible for individual aspects, and of course they always looked at things from their own isolated point of view, which then led to quite different end results. So up to now there has not been an integrated approach, an integrated view of the approximation of civil rights. I think it is a very good thing that following the decisions taken at the Tampere Council, the Commission now intends, just like this House, to adopt an integrated approach in future. This is a matter of urgent necessity, as the volume of cross-border trade is on the increase in Europe. There are two key factors which explain this. The first is, of course, the introduction of the euro next year. A second factor is the impact of modern technology, and I only have to mention electronic commerce. If, in the future, you order goods or other commodities via electronic commerce, you will have no idea, or, at least, you frequently will not have, of where the company you are dealing with is based. This is leading to an inevitable growth in cross-border trade. That is why I believe that it is also necessary for us to develop more common definitions of offences and a broader common body of Community law. The present electronic commerce directive, which we in this House supported, is not therefore, as we already know, an ideal solution. As the country of origin principle applies here, whereas in the case of consumer rights law the country of destination principle applies, this can lead in practice to situations such as a district court judge in Cologne having to apply Irish law in parallel with German law. I would not mind betting that this will lead to considerable problems when only trifling amounts are at stake and with bread-and-butter legal cases. This demonstrates that we need to develop a broader common body of law in future. My report now envisages, with the support of many expert groups who have been calling for this for a long time, that the Commission should continue its work by means of an action plan covering several years. At the end of that process, and this is my belief at least, the result should be a common body of law within the European Union, for cross-border transactions at least, which is as extensive as possible. With regard to transparency, I believe that this is necessary, not only for consumers, but also for businesspeople, and this also applies to legal certainty, legal practicality and the application of the law. I therefore wish to ask the House to give its approval to the proposal emanating from the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs on this report regarding the approximation of the civil and commercial law of the Member States. This is, as it were, the starting pistol for the Commission's work. I know that the Council is currently considering this matter in parallel with ourselves, and that it is intended to deal with this subject at the Laeken Summit. I believe that everyone in Europe has recognised that this issue is of a very high priority, and that progress needs to be made with this work. In order to exert a little bit of pressure, I think that we should approve this action plan.

Political group: PPE-DE