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(2004/C 33 E/236)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2178/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(30 June 2003)

Subject:   Obstacles to services trade

Will the Commission state what it believes to be the key obstacles to the growth of services trade in the European Union, particularly affecting small and medium-sized enterprises? What measures is it bringing forward to tackle these problems? How will it measure its own success in doing so?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(7 August 2003)

The Honourable Member queries about what the Commission considers to be the key obstacles for growth of trade in services in the Union, in particular affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), what measures it will propose to remove these obstacles and how it will measure the impact of the proposals.

Concerning the first part of the question, the Commission would like to refer the Honourable Member to the Commission report on the ‘state of Internal Market for services’ (1) of 30 July 2002, which presents an indicative list of problems that companies encounter at different stages of their business process when undertaking business across the Internal Market. This concluded that barriers were horizontal in nature affecting diverse service activities. The accumulation of the numerous barriers that occur throughout the business process have a profound negative impact on the growth and productivity of service activities in the Union. It also concluded that SMEs are hit much harder by these barriers than their larger rivals. In particular micro- and small companies are often not able to cover the required legal search and advice costs arising from the regulatory fragmentation that currently exists. The few that do are then forced to adjust their preferred business model to the differing national requirements. These may either dissuade them to proceed or may result in short-lived entry into other Member States. The fact that SMEs are the primary victims of the current fragmentation is particularly worrisome since service activities are dominated by micro- and small enterprises.

In response to the Honourable Member's second question, in line with the Commission publication on ‘an Internal Market strategy for services’ (2) of 29 December 2000, the Commission is currently examining how to resolve unjustified and disproportionate barriers that hamper the Internal Market for services. It intends to present a horizontal legislative instrument before the end of 2003, as called for by both the Parliament in its report on ‘the 2002 review of the Internal Market strategy — delivering the promise’ of 29 January 2003, and the Member States at the Competitiveness Council of November 2002 and the European Council of March 2003.

This future proposal will be accompanied by an impact assessment, in line with the Commission Communication on impact assessment (3) of 5 June 2002, which will propose indicators on which the future monitoring of the impact of the proposal will be based.

In addition and as a complement to this legislative proposal the Commission will present a Communication on ‘the competitiveness of business-related services and their contribution to the performance of European enterprises’.

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(1)  COM(2002)441 final.

(2)  COM(2000) 888 final.

(3)  COM(2002) 276 final.

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