Mr President, this debate on the guidelines on vertical restraints is the last in a series of four on an extremely technical subject, for now anyway. Industry is all too aware of the importance of the Community competition policy for its operations, but let us also not forget that fair, enforceable and sound competition rules also affect the consumer. I have the impression that for people who are not familiar with the competition policy, the whole question of vertical restraints between companies seems a rather strange business, but the fact is that a large proportion of daily distribution is made, managed and organised on the basis of the rules of vertical restraints. I did intend, Mr President, to provide my colleagues with a bit more information on this subject, but I can now see how few people are in the Chamber and I think I should not waste your time and the interpreters’ time on this. The Commissioner knows the subject and the Members who are still to speak on this matter know at least as much as I do about it. I shall therefore just say that I think that we as a Parliament, and as the rapporteur on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, can say that it is a good thing that the Commission draws up guidelines and that it publishes them. The Commission is the European competition authority par excellence and everyone and certainly legal security will benefit if it explains its new policy in detail beforehand. Secondly, I hope the Commission will incorporate the comments listed in the report by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, which I shall not repeat here, in the final version of the guidelines that will soon be published and I should also like to hear that from you personally, Commissioner. I should now like to ask a few questions. First of all, are we going to receive the evaluation which we asked for after three or four years of new policy in the sphere of vertical restraints? Secondly, when can we expect the proposals for a new policy for the horizontal agreements, a new policy that has also been announced by the Commission? Thirdly, the automobile distribution contracts for the time being fall outside the new policy, but the regulation for this sector expires in 2002. We can expect an evaluation to be made this year by the Commission. When will we receive it and has the Commission already consulted the automobile distribution sector and particularly the small distributors? Fourthly, despite everything, we still have a very fundamental question, a question that we have repeatedly raised in vain and I must therefore repeat it again here; why has the Commission nevertheless opted to apply the new policy immediately also to those sectors where the competition policy, as it was hitherto organised, operated perfectly well? In conclusion, Mr President, I should like to thank those Members – unfortunately they are not here in the Chamber – who also dealt with this subject in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, not only for this report, but also for the three reports that preceded it. I wish to inform those who tabled amendments, that is, amendments tabled on behalf of the Group, that I have unfortunately had to reject those amendments by reason of their content as I explained earlier in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and secondly, because these amendments had already been tabled at Committee level and rejected one by one. Mr President, I should finally like to apologise for the fact that I cannot be present at the vote tomorrow morning, but Mr von Wogau will replace me here as rapporteur, if necessary.

Political group: PPE-DE