Mr President, the recommendation which it is my honour to present, on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, proposes that the plenary adopts the common position without amendments. I have to say that this attitude has also been adopted by the various political groups. Mr President, I would like to stress that, by approving the Council’s common position on electronic commerce tomorrow, this House will be showing a very great degree of political responsibility of great institutional significance. Furthermore, by approving this directive, Parliament will be taking a decisive step in favour of the competitiveness of European businesses in the ‘on line’ economy and will be setting a milestone so that both consumers and companies will be able to operate in the internal market with the same guarantees and the same ease with which they operate in their domestic markets. The directive ensures that companies and citizens are able to provide and receive information society services throughout the European Union, which will thereby become a genuinely border-free area. European companies will be able to offer goods, services and information within the Union in accordance with the regulations of the Member State in which they are established and, therefore, in normalised circumstances, without being bound by 14 different sets of legislation. In order to arrive at these results, the directive harmonises certain areas, in particular – to name the main ones – the place where the operators are established, their obligations in terms of transparency, the requirements for transparency in commercial communications, the conditions required for the conclusion and validity of electronic contracts, the responsibility of Internet intermediaries, the settlement of disputes, as well as the competences of national authorities. In other areas, the directive is supported by the existing instruments intended to facilitate harmonisation and the mutual recognition of national legislations. Mr President, the directive includes – and this is important – all information society services, both business to business and business to user services, such as those which allow electronic operations to take place – interactive telesales of goods and services, on-line ‘shops’, for example; services which are offered free, such as those financed through advertising or sponsorship, the on-line press, on-line databases, on-line financial services, on-line professional services – lawyers, doctors or other professionals – leisure services such as video on demand, direct marketing and all services accessed via the Internet. The directive is also – as I have already said – a great example of interinstitutional cooperation. This directive is a magnificent example of teamwork by Parliament, the Commission and the Council. Therefore, Parliament’s position on first reading, in particular its decisive support for the principle of the country of origin, was crucial to the Council in order to avoid the balance of the text being jeopardised. In general, the common position follows the guidelines set by Parliament and, apart from some marginal cases, no significant amendments are added to the annex which provides for the exceptions relating to the principle I have mentioned. Balance is also maintained with regard to the provisions concerning consumer protection and the responsibility of intermediaries. I would like to express my thanks, as rapporteur, for the cooperation of all my colleagues in the Committee on Legal Affairs, and in particular the leaders of the various political groups – especially the support of Mrs Berger and Mr Harbour from my Group – and the other institutions. The common position, therefore, maintains the balance between the various general objectives and the various interests, and we have not therefore tabled any amendments. It is clearly not a perfect text, but we consider it to be a reasonable and acceptable one, and it is crucial that it is adopted as soon as possible. I will not repeat – although it is true – that Internet time is much shorter than time as we have known it up to now. We must also understand that this directive is a priority in terms of guaranteeing the development of electronic commerce. We must take account of the globalisation of the economy and competition from US companies and the legal framework of the internal market which strives, as on the Internet, for a space with no internal boundaries. All of these elements are Community assets as far as the competitiveness of European companies is concerned. Lastly, the development of new technologies and market-related innovations make it essential that we establish a legal framework for the development of commerce, while, as this directive ensures, areas are set aside which are suitable for self-regulation and for the development of specific codes of conduct. This directive, furthermore, will provide a significant stimulus to small- and medium-sized businesses so that they will embrace, without delay, this commerce without frontiers. They are currently not doing so because of the legal uncertainty involved in dealing with many different sets of legislation within Europe. Lastly, several Member States are already legislating in this area and, without this directive, we could see a genuine fragmentation of the internal market. This directive, furthermore, Mr President, is a milestone which will affect all Community initiatives which have an impact on electronic commerce. The legal framework established by this directive will facilitate the adoption of other Community directives, such as the one on copyright, the distance marketing of financial services or the controversial Brussels Convention on jurisdiction, and will clearly help to remove the risk of incompatibility between these initiatives and the principles of the internal market. Parliament intends to monitor closely the transposition and application of the directive in national legislations, and I have therefore included two recommendations, two reminders to the Commission, which I hope will be approved tomorrow, not within the framework of the directive, but within the framework of the legislative resolution; one on the procedures for the detection and withdrawal of illicit material, and another on the drafting of codes of conduct. Lastly, Mr President – and with this I will end – it is symbolic that Parliament is approving this directive on the eve of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the declaration by Robert Schuman, in which he stated that Europe would not be created in an instant but through achieving specific objectives which would create genuine solidarity between citizens and businesses. Fifty years ago, ‘specific objectives’ referred to the European Coal and Steel Community; today, as this directive points out, they refer to the information society. For this reason, Mr President, I believe that tomorrow this Parliament will be worthy of congratulation, and this congratulation can also be extended to the other Community institutions.

Political group: PPE-DE