European Parliament resolution on the Commission's ninth survey on state aid in the European Union (COM(2001) 403 - C5-0632/2001 - 2001/2269(COS))
Date: 2002-02-06
Institutions: Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament
Subjects: European Union, State aid, competition law, competitiveness, control of State aid, economic growth

C 284 E/194

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.11.2002

Wednesday 6 February 2002

1.

Approves the Council draft;

Calls on the Council to notify Parliament should it intend to depart from the text approved by

2.
Parliament;

3.

4.

Asks to be consulted again if the Council intends to amend its draft substantially;

Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission.

P5_TA(2002)0045

State aid

European Parliament resolution on the Commission’s ninth survey on state aid in the European
Union (COM(2001) 403 $ C5-0632/2001 $ 2001/2269(COS))

The European Parliament,

# having regard to the Commission report (COM(2001) 403 # C5-0632/2001),

# having regard to the state aid scoreboard (COM(2001) 412),

# having regard to the Commission report on the implementation in 2000 of Commission Decision
No 2496/96/ECSC of 18 December 1996 establishing Community rules for State aid to the steel
industry (Steel Aid Code) # (COM(2001) 151),

# having regard to the conclusions of the Stockholm European Council of 24 March 2001,

# having regard to Articles 87, 88 and 89 of the EC Treaty,

# having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,

# having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A5-0002/2002),

A. whereas in accordance with the conclusions of the Stockholm European Council the Member States
must demonstrate a reduction in state aid as a proportion of GNP not later than by the year 2003,
and in doing so must comply with the requirement of redirecting aid to horizontal objectives of
common interest,

B. whereas the European Union has set itself the objective of becoming the most competitive region in

the world within ten years,

C. whereas the European Parliament has, in its resolutions on state aid and in regular debates with the
Commissioner responsible in its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, repeatedly insisted on
measures to guarantee more transparency in the sector,

D. whereas the European Parliament drew attention, in its resolution of 24 October 2000 on the Com-
mission’s eighth survey on state aid in the European Union (1), to the significance of the competition-
distorting impact of tax measures in the area of state aid,

E. whereas the Member States agreed in 1997 on a code of conduct for company taxation under which

harmful tax competition would be prevented or stopped,

F. whereas aid reduction and monitoring strengthens the competitiveness of the European economy and
promotes economic growth and the creation of sustainable jobs; whereas no monitoring mechanism
comparable to Community-level aid supervision exists in the Member States,

(1) OJ C 197, 12.7.2001, p. 101.

21.11.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 284 E/195

Wednesday 6 February 2002

1.
Reiterates that EU state aid control is centred on the principle that while state aid is incompatible
with the common market, the granting of such aid by Member States can be justified in exceptional
circumstances;

2. Welcomes in principle the decline in state aid recorded in the European Union in the years 1997-
1999, and calls on the Commission to continue to pursue a rigorous policy particularly in controlling
sector-specific and ad hoc state aid;

3.
Calls on Member States to live up to the commitment they entered into at the Stockholm European
Council to reduce state aid as a proportion of GNP and to reallocate aid to horizontal objectives by taking
practical action as soon as possible;

4. Warns, with regard to the relationship of Community to national regional policy, against going down
the road of returning regional policy to national control, since that in particular would be at the expense
of the economically weaker Member States;

5.
Takes at all events the view that, with the expected change in the European structural funds for the
EU of 15 after 2006, a reassessment will have to be made in good time of the relationship between
European regional policy and national regional aid;

6. Welcomes explicitly the introduction of the aid register and the aid scoreboard, with which the
Commission has responded to the European Parliament’s requests for more transparency in the area of
state aid;

7. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to merge the annual aid survey and aid scoreboard as of next
year, thereby making a comprehensive reference document available on the situation, development and
trends in state aid in the European Union;

8.
Takes the view that the state-aid scoreboard will come to play an especially constructive part as a
forum for the exchange of experience between Member States, and calls on Member States to cooperate
actively in the compilation of relevant detailed information and information sources;

9.
Notes that the first edition of the aid scoreboard necessarily # and as the Commission itself acknowl-
edges # raises more questions than it can answer; is nonetheless confident that the scoreboard can even so
# assuming Member State cooperation # become a valuable and much-used instrument that will
in
particular also facilitate the work of the European Parliament in this area;

10.
Considers the part to be played by the scoreboard as being, like the internal market scoreboard,
to exert peer pressure on Member States that fall behind in withdrawing aid or in re-targeting it on
horizontal goals compared with other Member States;

11.
Urges that a chat room be set up in which concerned and interested parties can engage in up to the
minute exchanges of opinion and experience on state aid on the basis of the information contained in the
scoreboard;

12.
Urges in addition that a link be opened on the scoreboard website not only to the Member States
and their relevant internet addresses but also to the European Parliament, so that all institutions respon-
sible for this area can be accessed via the aid scoreboard;

Takes the view that in any Commission investigation of national company tax arrangements, the tax

13.
sovereignty of Member States must not be called into question;

14. Welcomes the investigation launched by the Commission in July into company taxation on aid, and
calls on the Commission to submit the results of the investigation as soon as possible;

Renews its call for codecision procedure to be introduced for all competition policy matters on

15.
which the Council decides by qualified majority;

C 284 E/196

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.11.2002

Wednesday 6 February 2002

16.
Notes the present difficult economic situation of airline companies, but calls on the Commission to
closely examine all applications for aid approval to ensure that such cases are strictly limited solely to the
immediate consequences of the terrorist outrage of 11 September and the limited disruption to flight
schedules, and do not lead to a weakening of the general state aid control regime in the European airline
sector;

17.
Reiterates its regret that data on state aid continues to be given only in aggregated form and calls
for more detailed information to be published on the purposes of aid granted, the sectors concerned and
the companies receiving such aid;

Calls on the Commission to more effectively enforce decisions concerning the repayment of unlaw-

18.
ful state aid and to present relevant proposals;

Calls on the Commission to urgently bring forward proposals for the extension of the steel aid code
19.
regime for state aid control (Commission Decision 2496/96/ECSC of 18 December 1996) (1) in order to
ensure the continuation of effective control of state aid in the steel sector;

20. Warns against the potentially harmful role of state aid when it comes to inciting the relocation of
companies from one Member State to another, which may lead to subsidy shopping by enterprises without
any value added for the common goals of the EU;

Calls on the Commission to keep a careful eye on the recently adopted aid packages to American

21.
airlines;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission and the parlia-

22.
ments of the Member States.

(1) OJ L 338, 28.12.1996, p. 42.

P5_TA(2002)0046

Education and training systems

European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication on the draft detailed work
programme for the follow-up of the report on the concrete objectives of education and training
systems (COM(2001) 501 $ C5-0601/2001 $ 2001/2251(COS))

The European Parliament,

# having regard to the Commission communication (COM(2001) 501 # C5-0601/2001),

# having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community and in particular to Articles 149

and 150 thereof,

# having regard to the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council of 23/24 March 2000,

# having regard to the conclusions of the Stockholm European Council of 23/24 March 2001,

# having regard to the Commission report on the concrete future objectives of education systems

(COM(2001) 59),

# having regard to its resolution of 15 May 2001 on ‘Teaching and learning # towards the learning

society’ (1),

# having regard to its position of 16 January 2001 on quality evaluation of school education (2),

(1)
‘Texts Adopted’, Item 17.
(2) OJ C 262, 18.9.2001, p. 44.