A4-0356/97

Resolution on the communication from the Commission on the Action Plan for the Single Market (CSE(97)0001 - C4-0286/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the communication from the Commission (CSE(97)0001 - C4- 0286/97),

- having regard to the Commission White Paper on the Completion of the Internal Market,

- having regard to the Conclusions of the Dublin European Council,

- having regard to its resolution of 29 May 1997 on the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the Impact and Effectiveness of the Internal Market ((OJ C 182, 16.6.1997, p. 62.)),

- having regard to the results of the report by the High Level Panel on the free movement of persons chaired by Mrs Veil (C4-0181/97),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinions of the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection and the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs (A4-0356/97),

A. whereas in 1993, with the creation of the internal market, border controls within the European Union were abolished completely for goods and partially for persons,

B. whereas considerable progress has also been made in eliminating technical barriers to trade,

C. whereas there should be a balance between the principle of free movement of goods and mutual recognition of standards on the one hand and provisions to allow Member States to secure high standards of health and safety concerning products sold on their territory on the other,

D. whereas, however, fifteen individual domestic markets remain in existence in the European internal market,

E. whereas the movement of persons and goods in the European internal market is still hampered by numerous obstacles,

F. whereas the real challenge presented by the internal market is that of affording small and medium-sized enterprises access to the single European market, as these enterprises particularly contribute to the creation and preservation of jobs,

1. Calls for the further development of the European internal market into a European domestic market by the year 2002 and welcomes the Commission's Action Plan as an important step towards this objective;

2. Calls for the preconditions to be created for the realization of free movement of persons and the definitive abolition of passport controls between Member States; considers it necessary, in order jointly to secure the external borders, that the programme 'Customs 2000' be implemented rapidly and in full and the External Borders Convention finally concluded; stresses the importance of a uniform EDP system and the introduction of a simplified and uniform procedure for securing the external borders, in which connection an equally high level of protection must be ensured;

3. Calls for the following measures in the field of taxation:

- a reduction of the burden of taxation on labour with the aim of promoting employment,

- a plan for the phased introduction of the country of origin principle up to the year 2002 in the context of the future VAT system and a gradual approximation of the rates of VAT of the Member States up to the year 2002,

- proposals aimed at eliminating the shortcomings of the current VAT system,

- the introduction of a lower rate of VAT for labour-intensive SMEs,

- approximation of excise rates,

- codes of conduct for taxation for the Member States, to supplement the existing legal provisions and agreements, which include the general elements listed in its resolution of 29 May 1997 on the Commission report on taxation in the European Union: report on the development of tax systems ((OJ C 182, 16.6.1997, p. 59.)),

- measures for the cross-border taxation of enterprises as proposed in the Ruding report, particularly mutual recognition of enterprises' profits and losses in the case of enterprises operating internationally,

- practical proposals for eliminating double taxation of frontier workers,

- uniform tax definitions and taxable events,

- elimination of tax havens and measures to ensure that tax decisions do not distort competition or run counter to structural policy,

- in the field of energy taxation, the early adoption of the Directive on the restructuring of Community framework provisions on the taxation of energy products,

- common principles regarding taxation of capital based on an OECD agreement;

4. Considers that an efficiently functioning infrastructure is a fundamental requirement of the European domestic market and calls, therefore, for the consistent and rapid, but at the same time ecologically acceptable, development of trans-European networks in the following sectors:

(a) transport, particularly the further development of high-speed rail networks; the inadequacies of regulation and supervision in European civil aviation must be overcome, a European air safety agency must be set up as as soon as possible and a new Eurocontrol Convention concluded,

(b) telecommunications, in which connection it is necessary to implement the liberalization of speech telephony services as planned, to consider making a contribution to the development of satellite communications from the budget of the European Union in connection with its telecommunications policy, and to consider establishing a European regulatory authority for telecommunications,

(c) energy, where not only the continued liberalization of energy markets but also the promotion of new renewable forms of energy and the development of the pipeline system are the priorities,

(d) reiterates that the extension of the internal market concept to public services is acceptable only if the maintenance of public services is guaranteed in the form of a comprehensive universal service concept, with clear provision for the financing of services;

5. Stresses the importance of standards as an instrument of industrial policy, and:

- calls upon the Commission to work to improve the efficiency of European standardization institutions and dramatically accelerate the commissioning of standards,

- calls for more consistent use of the procedure of referring to technical standards in legislation and for participation by small and medium-sized enterprises and consumer organizations as well as, where appropriate, NGOs active in the field of environmental protection in the standardization process to be facilitated,

- calls on the Member States to improve mutual recognition of testing procedures and standards and to give national standardization experts in EU bodies clear instructions and time limits,

- calls, in the longer term, for the three European standardization institutes to be amalgamated into a single European standards body,

- observes that, where product inspections are concerned, differing levels of protection may hamper international trade, and welcomes, therefore, the introduction of uniform high safety standards, including precise definitions, compliance with which must be guaranteed by means of more stringent product inspections;

6. Observes the need for continuous progress in simplifying and clarifying the legislative framework, and that particularly company law also needs to be further developed, and notes that there is a particularly urgent need for action with regard to the adoption of the Statute for a European company; supports the use by the Commission of effective penalties in the form of fines, to be utilized as part of the EU budget, as a means of guaranteeing uniform application of all existing legal provisions in all Member States; calls, in connection with further approximation of laws, for a comprehensive directive on the law of warranty and a directive to reduce late payments;

7. Observes that protection of intellectual property in the Community, which is of decisive importance to research, innovation and hence the competitiveness of European enterprises, needs to be supplemented further, and calls for measures in the following fields:

(a) patents, in which connection the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the legal protection of biotechnological products must be adopted as quickly as possible,

(b) trademarks, in which connection the successful work of the Trademark Office in Alicante should be continued and expanded,

(c) utility designs and ornamental designs,

(d) copyright and related rights, where there is a particular need for action in connection with the new technologies of the information society;

8. Considers that a European domestic market also requires a European economic policy, which should be based on the principles of the ecological and social market economy; these include the balanced application of the competition rules on the one hand and the consideration of the wider goals laid down in the EC Treaty concerning high social and environmental standards on the other hand, further development of the European internal market, a budgetary policy based on the Amsterdam European Council's resolutions on stability, growth and employment, fundamental rules on tax policy and greater efficiency on the part of administrative authorities, to be attained with the aid of such instruments as benchmarking and best practices; considers, however, that the overall volume of aid in the Community is massive and the trend in it stable, that it distorts fair competition, is incompatible with the internal market, undermines the EU's commitment to a free world market and will be a source of possible friction between Member States participating in EMU and those which do not participate in it;

9. Observes that special attention must be devoted to the Single Market operating with complementary respect to social security, health and safety measures at work and a high degree of consumer protection, and that all citizens, including the 120 million children, should benefit from the Single Market in accordance with the proposals made by the Commission under Strategic Target 4 (¨Delivering a Single Market for the benefit of all citizens¨); considers further promotion of consumer information centres in the European Union important as a means of disseminating information about the internal market; considers that certain minimum levels of social protection must not be violated through the pursuit of competitive advantage; calls on the Commission to investigate how the effectiveness of the labour-protection standards adopted at Community level can be increased; calls, in particular, for it to ascertain what penalties can be imposed for infringements of existing provisions;

10. Stresses the importance of dialogue with the citizens and calls on the Commission to intensify and extend the signpost service at national level in cooperation with all European bodies and institutions, in particular with the European Parliament and its Committee on Petitions; considers that existing information campaigns, in particular via Internet and electronic data-processing systems from the different European bodies and institutions, should develop links to each other to ensure the effective safeguarding of the interests and rights of the public;

11. Considers that specific attention should be devoted to the way in which SMEs can participate in the internal market so that the advantages and opportunities presented by the internal market do not pass SMEs by, as they make a major contribution to job creation; encourages the Commission to ensure that the multiannual programme (1997 - 2000) and other measures favouring small and medium-sized enterprises are set out and fully implemented; in addition, shortcomings and obstacles with regard to freedom of establishment in individual Member States must be eliminated and the cross-border setting-up of businesses, for example in the craft trades, should be effectively facilitated; calls upon the Commission to ensure that the Member States do implement the Action Plan via the "Single Market Scoreboard¨;

12. Reaffirms its view that the common market requires a common European currency, and regards the single currency as a necessary component of the European domestic market;

13. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the parliaments of the Member States.