A4-0254/97

Resolution on the Commission Green Paper on commerce (COM(96)0530 - C4-0646/96)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission Green Paper (COM(96)0530 - C4-0646/96),

- having regard to the Community legislation directly connected with commerce,

- having regard to its resolution of 19 September 1996 on the proposal for a Council Decision on a third multiannual programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (1997 to 2000) ((OJ C 320, 28.10.1996, p. 153.)),

- having regard to the Commission communication entitled 'Towards a Single Market in Distribution' (COM(91)0041),

- having regard to its resolution of 24 April 1997 on the communication from the Commission on the craft industry and small enterprises, keys to growth and employment in Europe ((OJ C 150, 19.5.1997, p. 44.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 24 April 1997 on the coordination of activities in favour of SMEs and the craft sector ((OJ C 150, 19.5.1997, p. 50.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 15 July 1997 on the Commission Green Paper entitled 'Commercial Communications in the Internal Market' ((inutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 8.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinions of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection and the Committee on Regional Policy (A4-0254/97),

A. whereas commerce is the second biggest employer in the EU, accounting as it did in 1994 for:

- 4.5 million commercial enterprises,

- a third of all firms in the EU, 95% of which have fewer than 10 employees,

- 22 million jobs,

- 16% of the EU labour force,

- a high proportion of female labour, including 55% of persons working in the retail trade,

- 3.4 million retail businesses employing 15 million people,

- 1.1 million wholesale businesses providing 7 million jobs,

- 13% on average of the value added generated in the EU economy,

B. whereas commerce is an essential component of the tertiary sector, which, within the economy as a whole, has achieved and is achieving the best performances in terms of growth, development and employment; whereas the benefits accruing from the combined operation of commerce, tourism and market-related services should be taken into account and fostered; whereas tourism and public commercial enterprises in particular are closely linked and form part and parcel of commerce as a whole; whereas a range of tourist services geared to meet demand has to be encompassed within a commercial system matching the characteristics of the specific geographical area concerned,

C. whereas the links between existing forms of regional commercial enterprises and established regionally based production systems need to be expanded; whereas the typical local specialities of a given area (products of farming or stockbreeding, foodstuffs, non-food manufactures, or craftwork) will be able to win new markets if they are properly supported and publicized by the regional authorities, for which the EU should draw up special programmes and provide the necessary funding; whereas care must however be taken to ensure that no protective measures arise which further restrict the operation of the internal market for commerce,

D. whereas, as regards the forthcoming introduction of the single European currency, no other sector will be involved to a greater extent in spreading and promoting awareness of the euro; whereas joint action should accordingly be undertaken with a view to providing the information which commerce will have to pass on to consumers and the training which will have to be given in advance both to small-scale entrepreneurs, agencies, brokers and traders and to employees working for food and non-food sales outlet chains,

E. whereas the costs of introducing the euro will mainly be incurred in certain sectors of commerce, for which they will be disproportionately high in comparison with other sectors;

1. Generally endorses the Commission's approach to the broad sector covered in the Green Paper;

2. Regrets, however, that many of the statistics in Annex A are out of date, referring to the early 1990s;

3. Notes that the Green Paper is the first document in which the Commission has addressed itself to comprehensive study of commerce as a whole, a sector which has contributed and can contribute a great deal to the economy and society; points out that the resources and potential of the sector should have been tackled and analysed earlier, since its relative neglect has resulted in lost business and employment opportunities;

4. Maintains that the Union and the Member States will have to pay increasingly close attention to the distributive trades, given their importance and direct and indirect links with the wider economy and society, their implications for and the opportunities open to them on the labour market, connected for example with retraining of workers, and their relations to consumers, the production system, agriculture, the craft industry, tourism, and the environment;

5. Calls for the promotion of exchanges of experience and information, of knowledge of the state of progress in the retail and distributive trades in the EU, and of cooperation in the form of subsidies for events, to be pursued and extended to other areas;

6. Points out, having regard to the current social and economic state of play in the Community, that the distributive trades can, in view of their extent, make a very positive contribution to employment provided that both employees and entrepreneurs have undergone the right training, and draws attention to the need to set up specific trade colleges;

7. Believes that the distributive trades can make a genuine contribution to reducing unemployment if they are able to create stable, lasting jobs;

8. Stresses that supply must be demand-led and consumer choice must therefore be guaranteed, as regards both sales outlets and availability of products;

9. Points out that it is necessary to ensure that vertical integration at Community and national level does not limit consumer choice; the principle of open, non-discriminatory market access on the basis of competition policy in the single market must be applied and subject to supervision;

10. Draws attention to the fundamental principle that the sole purpose of the distributive trades is to offer products and services to consumers while conforming to market changes - without ignoring typical regional habits, practices, and consumption patterns - and, at the same time, promoting internationalization of the market in order to meet consumer needs;

11. Believes that the distributive trades' SMEs suffer disproportionately from over-regulation as a result both of EC directives and regulations and of national regulations; is opposed, however, to deregulation measures which undermine the social rights of workers in the sector concerned and consumer protection;

12. Reminds the Commission and the Member States that over-regulation is anticompetitive because it favours large multiple retailers who can afford specialist advisers whereas SMEs cannot;

13. Welcomes the fact that the Commission devotes attention in its Green Paper to the important role, which has hitherto been overlooked, that small retailers and local shops can play in preserving or improving the quality of life in rural areas, town centres and urban areas without which, particularly in remote, island or mountainous regions, economic development in all its aspects (such as the maintenance of a competitive agricultural sector, economic diversification, and the development of tourism) is inevitably imperilled; stresses the important social role small retailers and local shops perform in terms of direct or indirect employment and promotion of economic and social cohesion, both in rural and urban areas; considers that the necessary measures should be taken to prevent the elimination of retail trade and, to this end, to restore the balance between large and small shops;

14. Notes, however, that the maintenance of a commercial sector of this kind is dependent on the retail sector becoming sufficiently competitive, in other words capable of meeting consumers' expectations and current commercial standards;

15. Considers, therefore, that the Member States must encourage the modernization of the retail sector by all means possible (including the provision of aid for equipment or for training in the new technologies; encouraging the creation of commercial purchasing agencies and purchasing cooperatives and efforts to seek improved supply policies; the establishment of multi- service centres);

16. Takes the view that electronic trading is by far the best way of opening up remote regions and calls on the Commission to promote the technology and infrastructure needed to develop electronic trading, particularly in these regions;

17. Reaffirms that the introduction of new technologies in the distributive trades must not be at the expense of jobs and stresses the need to adapt legislation on consumer protection to the major changes currently taking place in the distribution of goods and services;

18. Notes that, in urban areas, local shops are disappearing both from certain town centres and from the suburbs, which has detrimental effects on the quality of life, increases the marginalization and insecurity of certain districts, and generates pollution as a result of journeys to out-of-town hypermarkets by consumers living in town centres;

19. Notes that cross-border trade, with support through cross-border cooperation programmes (INTERREG II), offers enormous possibilities - particularly for regions that are remote from the centre of the Union - which could make a decisive contribution to economic cooperation with the creation of joint SMEs and, by extension, to the economic and social cohesion of the regions in question;

20. To ensure that recognition of the role of neighbourhood shops in strengthening economic and social cohesion, as reflected in the Green Paper on commerce, is followed by concrete measures, calls on the Commission:

- to urge Member States to exploit to the full the opportunities offered by the Structural Funds (in connection with the mid-term review of Objectives 1 and 5b, the new 1997-1999 programming period for Objective 2, and the URBAN, SMEs, INTERREG and LEADER II Community initiative programmes) to finance projects to promote neighbourhood shops in both rural and urban areas,

- to conduct a major information campaign aimed at all parties concerned in order to generate the maximum number of projects,

- to ensure the widest possible circulation of the experience gained,

- to finance innovative measures (Article 10 of ERDF) and to consider the possibility of setting up a European monitoring centre for the retail trade,

- to ensure that trade-promotion measures are embedded in a general development or restructuring strategy based on integrated action programmes. These measures must take account of the interests and needs of all the inhabitants of urban and rural regions as well as remote, mountain and island regions and ensure that they have access to the market;

21. Endorses the Commission's call for an integrated policy for cities and for increasing the number of sales outlets in rural and sparsely populated areas; in this respect, welcomes the fact that in some Member States government has established funds for inner-city commercial centres in order to encourage the expansion of commercial centres in inner cities and core municipalities on the basis of the symbiosis between the economy and urban renewal; urges the Commission to arrange an interchange of ideas by exchanging information about such practices, thereby creating added value;

22. Believes that the Member States must ensure that the construction of increasingly large inner city shopping centres does not inflict irreparable damage on the environment, particularly in the historic centres of towns;

23. Hopes that the relationship and synergy with manufacturing and processing industry will improve constantly so as to ensure that consumers can be supplied with products of faultless quality posing no dangers from the health and hygiene point of view and using increasingly environment-friendly packaging and distribution systems, and considers that the hygiene Directives already introduced (HCCP Directive) are a good way of ensuring this;

24. Applauds any action likely to improve the state of the environment, provided that the costs and benefits are in due proportion, and believes that it is important to involve commerce and the productive sector in seeking and creating less noxious living conditions for all individuals, viewed in the first place as consumers;

25. Given that consumers are increasingly concerned by such issues as food production methods, the environment and animal welfare, notes that commerce can respond to these concerns by leading the way and encouraging producers to provide products which are not damaging to health, for example, by promoting organic products, thereby maintaining a balance between economic interests and health protection;

26. Stresses that the sector of commerce must also take the lead in reducing product packaging, particularly during transport, thereby helping to improve environmental conditions as part of waste management policy;

27. Stresses that labelling must convey an immediate, clear and comprehensible message and it is therefore necessary to harmonize the various existing symbols to avoid confusion and to adopt simplified Community rules;

28. Notes that commerce consists essentially of SMEs which, as far as Community and national legislation is concerned, are no less important than any other economic sector dominated by SMEs;

29. Welcomes the fact that the Commission devotes ample attention in its Green Paper to the impact which the introduction of the euro will have on commerce and at the same time stresses the important role which can be played by commerce in informing consumers about the euro and securing their acceptance of it; trusts that the Commission will therefore take sufficient account of the concerns and wishes of the sectors in question when preparing for and introducing the single currency;

30. Stresses the importance of ensuring that SMEs in the commercial sector derive benefit from the many existing SME programmes and initiatives so that they do not only benefit manufacturing industry;

31. Points out that relations between the commercial system and banks need to be reconsidered inter alia in the light of developments in electronic commerce, and improvements encouraged; notes that no economic sector today has the same potential as commerce as a whole; believes that banks, finance houses, and credit institutions should, through appropriate credit facilities, support modernization and the quantitative and qualitative advance of commerce, the sector which can do most to resolve employment problems;

32. Calls for the effects of horizontal and vertical commercial cooperation to be fully recognized, since this system helps to promote growth and development in commercial SMEs;

33. Welcomes the new directive on distance selling as existing Community legislation needs to be adapted to the development of new technologies which makes it possible to generate new commercial activities (distance selling) by means of electronic payments; urges the Commission to convert into legislative proposals its recommendation 88/590/EEC of 17 November 1988 concerning payment systems, and in particular the relationship between card holder and card issuer ((OJ L 317, 24.11.1988, p. 55.)) and its recommendation 87/598/EEC of 8 December 1987 on a European Code of Conduct relating to electronic payment (relations between financial institutions, traders and service establishments, and consumers) ((OJ L 365, 24.12.1987, p. 72.));

34. Calls for simplification of regulations and easing of administrative burdens in the field of statistics in order to create a simpler system; this is also necessary in respect of the definitive VAT system, where the clearing mechanism is based on statistical information concerning goods flows between Member States;

35. Deplores the fact that the role of trading companies and sales agencies has been overlooked; notes that they handle over 50% of trade and will become an even more important factor in the future if their function is understood and supported;

36. Calls for the Commission to take a more leading role in dealing with illegal barriers to trade erected in the individual Member States;

37. Considers that the Commission's Green Paper paid insufficient attention to the need for the adoption of the 'origin principle' in VAT to eliminate the need for separate records for 'home' and 'export' transactions, which are a greater burden for SMEs than LEs (Large Enterprises);

38. Hopes that, in its composition, the Committee on Commerce and Distribution which advises the Commission will remain representative of the heterogeneous sector it represents;

39. Observes that the future development of trade is dependent not only on the considerations referred to in the Green Paper but also on legislation and the Commission's competition policy; proposes to adopt a position on a number of these aspects in connection with the Green Paper on vertical agreements in the competition policy of the European Union;

40. Draws attention to the need to assist commercial operators with regard to the new information systems, such as the development of electronic commerce;

41. Calls on the Commission to assist commercial operators in connection with the introduction of the euro;

42. Points to the dynamism and diversity of commerce, which is not just confined to physical distribution of products and services, but also covers the entire spectrum of wholesale and retail trade in all its different forms;

43. Calls for genuine simplification of Community legislation with a view to improving the operating, administrative and economic environment for businesses, and in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, which are represented in such great numerical strength and play such an essential role in commerce and every other economic sector;

44. Hopes that the consumer organizations and the various occupational groups engaged in commerce at Community and national level will, through their representative organizations, have an increasingly greater say in the forthcoming decisions and policies affecting the sector;

45. Maintains that a White Paper on commerce should be drawn up within two years of adoption of this resolution, renewing the call it made in its resolution of 24 April 1997 on the coordination of activities in favour of SMEs and the craft sector;

46. Calls on the Commission to provide for a proposal to regulate the expansion of distribution through hypermarkets in order to make for smooth, balanced growth and, secondly, to ensure that small shops and their distinctive local role are not excluded from the changes now under way;

47. Stresses that the common aim of the distributive and retail trades must be to sell high quality, safe products at reasonable prices;

48. Points to the cultural role of commerce, which must be developed first and foremost through universities, specialized schools, research and information institutes, and economic journals, primarily with a view to promoting employment growth in the sector;

49. Calls for more widespread use of electronic payment systems (credit and debit cards etc.) in the distributive trades in order to limit the quantity of cash held in shops and supermarkets, which are vulnerable to criminal attacks, and hence to protect the safety of shopkeepers and consumers; believes that the above aim could be achieved firstly by reducing the tax on individual electronic payment transactions and secondly by calling on banks and financial institutions to lower the cost of issuing and using payment cards, thereby ensuring that sales points will be encouraged to accept them and consumers encouraged to use them;

50. Calls for attention to be given, as a matter of the highest priority, to the role which commerce will play in the spread of the single European currency; notes that consumers will discover and get to know the euro at the sales points of the distributive trades and services operating on the market (hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, workshops, bars, and so forth); considers accordingly that technological change within the commercial system will need to be supported by means of the appropriate programmes and funding to facilitate the change of accounting systems and by setting up technical working parties comprising traders, industrial manufacturers, and suppliers of cash registers and computer systems;

51. Points to the importance of brand names in the production-distribution-consumption process and the way in which they can help improve the quality and knowledge of products intended for the final customer; considers that the above end could be achieved by means of more effective continuous, organized contacts with commercial enterprises, not least through institutes and joint projects (ECR, EDI, bar codes, etc.), the invariable common objective being to safeguard the best interests of consumers;

52. Stresses that it is essential that consumers are guaranteed the right of direct appeal in the event of disputes to ensure fair procedures as far as cross-border purchases are concerned;

53. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.