Mr President, the European Union delivers. The effectiveness of the codecision procedure has made a substantial contribution in this case. People’s demands for development, increased growth and more jobs have now met with a response. The conciliation concerning public procurement, which we are now to debate, is an expression of this. It is necessary to modernise the European market and open it to public procurement in order to increase European competitiveness. The directive on public procurement stipulates full competition between tenderers. Complete transparency and equal treatment are guaranteed. That is of benefit both to European taxpayers, who obtain better value for money, and to the innumerable companies that are now being given the opportunity to compete for contracts throughout the EU. From Parliament’s point of view, the conciliation was a success. There were few of us who, at the beginning, had believed that the final outcome would be so close to our starting position. The administration of procurement will be considerably simplified. The directive will be simpler and clearer than its predecessor, and there will be increased user-friendliness, especially as a result of the electronic trading centres that are to be established, a development that will simplify matters for small and medium-sized enterprises with limited administrative resources. Improved dialogue between suppliers and those who issue contracts has been built into the directive. Our aim was to increase competitiveness, to promote equal treatment and to improve our tools for combating organised crime and corruption. It was necessary to increase transparency and, in particular, information about who has obtained a contract and why. It was these issues and the opportunity of introducing social and environmental considerations that, more than anything else, forced the conciliation. The directive prevents social and environmental aspects being taken account of in an arbitrary or unbalanced way. Thought can, however, still be given to such matters. We obtained a balance with the aid of the EC Court of Justice’s jurisdiction, whose case law was implemented, a factor that provides legal certainty in this area. For this encouraging outcome, I wish especially to thank both the rapporteur, Mr Zappalà, and the shadow rapporteur, Mrs Berger, whose input has been considerable. I also especially wish to thank both the entire parliamentary delegation and the two Commissioners who are present today and who, to use a homely turn of phrase, have not let the grass grow under their feet but really have made major practical contributions. I even wish, unusually for an MEP, to thank the Presidency, which dealt with this issue and with which we negotiated. Without all these combined efforts, it would have been impossible to take this step. We should not have been able to come so far if all the parties had not had the practical political will to deliver to Europe in this area. The outcome, therefore, was agreement, in spite of quite difficult political antagonisms at the start. We expect this step to contribute to more intensive European trade, the consequence being gains in terms of prosperity for the EU, our citizens and our European populations. Thank you, all who have contributed.

Political group: PPE-DE