14.Competitionrules
A5-0217/2000
EuropeanParliamentresolutionontheCommissioncommunicationoncompetitionrulesrelating
tohorizontalco-operationagreements(C5-0304/2000/dash2000/2154(COS))
The European Parliament,
Bdash having regard to the Commission communication pursuant to Article 5 of Council Regulation (EEC)
No 2821/71 of 20 December 1971 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories ofagreements, decisions and concerted practices modified by Regulation (EEC) No 2743/72 (C5-0304/2000)(
1),
Bdash having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,
Bdash having regard to the report of the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
(A5-0217/2000),
A. considering that in the field of anti-trust and mergers and vertical restraints it is the practice that draft
texts are sent to the European Parliament before they are published, even in the absence of any official
legal obligation,
B. convinced of the importance of extending such practice to the field of horizontal co-operation agree-
ment,
C. aware of the necessity to modify the current legislative framework and practices in order to take into
consideration the changing economy as far as research and development and specialisation agreementsand other horizontal agreements are concerned,
1. Welcomes the proposal of the Commission to assess horizontal co-operation agreements on the basis
of an economic approach, within the context of the Commission’s wide-ranging reform of Competitionpolicy;
2. Expresses its concern at the opinion chosen by the Commission for dealing with horizontal
restraints, which differs from that used for vertical restraints. In this case, instead of a single exemptionregulation by category, there are two specific draft regulations which do not cover all the exemptedrestraints, together with a set of guidelines covering many agreements not referred to in the regulations,which implies different legal treatment for various types of agreement;
3. Considers that some of the agreements included in the guidelines, such as those on purchasing and
marketing agreements, should be included in an exemption regulation by category;
4. Believes that the maximum duration for exemption in cases where the results are jointly exploited
should be increased from five years as proposed in the regulation to ten years, in order to provide legalcertainty and security to the parties in respect of significant R & D projects;
5. Calls on the Commission to consider the new drafts as an intermediate step in the development of a
comprehensive block exemption regulation for horizontal restraints;
6. Expresses its concern at the Commission’s proposed exclusive use of market share as the measure of
market power, and calls on the Commission to examine additional means of more accurately assessingsuch market power;
7. Welcomes the Commission’s proposals to move to adopt an economic approach in relation the
assessment of horizontal agreements, but urges the Commission for improved clarification of the provi-sions governing whether horizontal or vertical guidelines should be applied;
(1) OJ C 118, 27.4.2000, p. 3.C 146/106 EN 17.5.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities
Thursday21September2000
8. Calls on the Commission to make it perfectly clear, by including them in the guidelines, that
reciprocal or unilateral agreements on supply (‘trade supplies’) are not affected by the ban laid down inArticle 81(1);
9. Recognises the need to prevent the re-nationalisation of EU competition law and urges the Commis-
sion to discourage national competition authorities from undertaking a second consideration of suchexempted agreements under their own national law;
10. Expresses its concern that guidelines 122 and 141 set an arbitrary market power threshold of 15%,
and urges the Commission to increase this threshold to a minimum figure of 20%;
11. Calls on the Commission to increase the length of the transitional period for introduction of these
regulations to two years;
12. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission and the parlia-
ments of the Member States.
15.Complementaritybetweendevelopmentcooperationpolicies
A5-0227/2000
EuropeanParliamentresolutionontheCommissioncommunicationoncomplementaritybetween
CommunityandMemberStatepoliciesondevelopmentcooperation(COM(1999)218/dashC5-0179/
1999/dash1999/2156(COS))
The European Parliament,
Bdash having regard to the Commission communication (COM(1999) 218 Bdash C5-0179/1999),
Bdash having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,
Bdash having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A5-0227/2000),
A. having regard to its resolutions of 28 October 1993 on increased coordination of the development aid
provided by the Member States and the Community(1), 21 February 1997on the communication
from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on complementarity between theCommunity’s development cooperation policy and the policies of the Member States(
2) and 17Febru-
ary 2000 on the coherence of the various policies(3),
B. whereas Article 177 of the EC Treaty states that Community policy in the sphere of development
cooperation shall be complementary to the policies pursued by the Member States,
C. having regard to the Council resolution of 21 May 1999 on complementarity,D. whereas Article 180 of the EC Treaty states that the Community and the Member States shall coordi-
nate their policies on development cooperation and consult each other on their aid programmes,including in international organisations and during international conferences,
E. whereas the European Union is the world’s largest donor of public development aid,
F. whereas the complementarity of development policies must form part of an overall strategy aimed
also at ensuring the consistency and coordination of these policies,
(1) OJ C 315, 22.11.1993, p. 250.
(2) OJ C 85, 17.3.1997, p. 178.
(3) ‘Texts Adopted’, Item 7.17.5.2001 EN C 146/107 Official Journal of the European Communities
Thursday21September2000