Mr President, I am delighted to welcome the statements of the Commissioner and the President of the Council both on behalf of my Group and as the Legal Affairs Committee's rapporteur on the internal market strategy. These statements are very important and very timely. From my own point of view as a British Conservative Member who joined this Parliament three years ago and who has been consistently engaged in internal market activities since then, it is the first time we have had a statement of this kind. It does mark something of a milestone for me, and I hope for the Parliament. We must ensure that we do not have such a long gap between these sort of engagements and discussions about future strategy. I also hope, on the tenth anniversary of the 1992 programme, that colleagues will not mind me mentioning that it was a British Commissioner, Lord Cockfield, who was responsible for pushing that programme through with the active encouragement of the British Conservative Government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This tenth anniversary provides us with an important opportunity to launch a new initiative to push on further and faster with the drive towards completing the internal market, shifting it into higher gear. That can only be done by engaging all of the European institutions, business and consumer organisations in a much more powerful coalition. There is a sense in which we have taken the internal market too much for granted. As both the Commissioner and the Minister said this morning, that certainly is not the case. I want to say to Commissioner Bolkestein that, as the rapporteur for the committee, my draft report is certainly going to be hard hitting and ambitious. I hope my colleagues will support me, and I think they will because the Legal Affairs Committee has been a strong supporter of internal market policy. We have had lively debates, but the general direction will move towards the sort of programmes that the Commission wishes to encourage. We are certainly prepared to rise to the challenge of creating the internal market for services. That is going to be difficult and will need a lot of political support, which, Commissioner Bolkestein, we will give you. As for the Council, I would like to commend Mr Bendtsen very much on his leadership on this issue and on launching the Competitiveness Council. You do not need to wait for the Commission to take initiatives to move this forward. Looking at this report about the barriers to services in the internal market – which, colleagues, I urge you to read – it is clear that Member States could now get on with the task of freeing up business establishment, removing the bureaucracy about the launch of small businesses and encouraging service businesses to establish in other countries. Those of you in the Competitiveness Council could take that initiative next time you meet. You do not need to wait for the Commission. This is the sort of positive approach that we want to see the Member States making and clearing up the sort of deficits in transposition that Mr Bolkestein identified earlier. So, please, Council, take the initiative. In conclusion, a few months ago Mr Bolkestein published an article on the Parliament's work on sales promotion directives, which was headlined 'Parliament comes to the rescue of the internal market'. We are not here just to rescue it, we are here to drive it forward and that is what we intend to do over the next 12 months and beyond. (Applause)

Political group: PPE-DE