A3-0045/94

Resolution on the 22nd Report of the Commission of the European Communities on Competition Policy

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the 22nd Report of the Commission of the European Communities on competition policy (COM(93)0162 - C3-0191/93),

-having regard to the Commission's response to Parliament's resolution of 18 December 1992 on the 21st Report,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights (A3-0045/94),

A.believing that if Community competition policy is to continue to have broad support it is going to have to respond to a number of key challenges,

Completing the internal market

1.Considers that vigorous implementation of existing competition policy will be of central importance in ensuring the full achievement of the internal market;

2.Believes that new efforts will have to be made to tackle residual internal market barriers, including the uneven quality of regulation and administration in different Member States of the European Union; calls on the Commission, moreover, to proceed further in the application of competition policy in such specific sectors as financial services and transport, subject to minimum public service obligations being fulfilled and, in particular, tariff guarantees being given to the users who are least well-off;

3.Insists on careful monitoring of the practical results of earlier Commission action, for instance in the field of motor vehicle prices, to ensure that Community competition policy is really working;

4.Calls for a progressive reduction in the persisting wide disparities in the overall levels of state aid between different Member States, and for the proper establishment of objective Community-wide rather than national criteria for such aid;

Promoting economic and social cohesion

5.Notes with concern that the four poorest Member States are granting less aid per person employed than the Community average and that the Government aid granted to manufacturing in the four largest Community economies as a percentage of the total such aid granted in the Community actually rose from 75% between 1986-88 to 79% between 1988-90. Considers that Community competition policy will have to address this problem if it is to promote rather than inhibit the objective of economic and social cohesion;

6.Recalls its request that the Commission urgently review the overall application of Community competition policy in the new Länder of Germany, especially during the sensitive winding-up phase of the Treuhandanstalt's activities, so that an appropriate balance is retained between flexible treatment for the new Länder and fairness to the rest of the Community, while recognizing the need for transitional arrangements in view of the special difficulties faced by the new Länder;

7.Calls on the Commission to put forward proposals setting out the conditions on which enterprises which are seriously affected by environmental protection measures or are located in ecologically sensitive areas may receive aid;

Competition policy in connection with the privatisation and liberalisation process, and the changing role of the public sector

8.Welcomes the fact that these developments are leading to an extension of the scope of competition within the European Union but insists, at the same time, on respect for a number of key principles:

-the need to ensure that there is true neutrality of competition policy between the public and private sectors,

-the need to ensure that a common framework of universal service obligations is developed at Community level,

-the need to ensure that there are effective and broadly comparative regulatory regimes within each of the Member States,

-the need to ensure that any remaining monopolies in the use of networks are subject to maximum transparency, and apply uniform systems of cost accounting;

Competition policy and the economic recession in Europe

9.Emphasises the vital role that must be played by Community competition policy in overcoming the risks of increased protectionism at a time of economic slowdown and recession;

10.Calls on the Commission, when assessing public aids granted by Member States to their enterprises, to take into account whether these aids are consistent with the shift in the economy towards sustainable development: conversion of traditional industries such as armaments, iron and steel and shipbuilding to operations which help disadvantaged regions to catch up, create jobs and establish an economic, social and physical environment which is attractive both to citizens and to potential investors;

11.Calls on the Commission to continue to provide the maximum possible guidance as to which aid is justified and under what conditions. Welcomes the Commission's new guidelines for state aid to SME's, and requests more information from the Commission as to what progress it is making to develop a more coherent approach to the treatment of labour market schemes in the Member States, and also as regards aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty;

12.Insists, however, that the European Union's response to the economic recession and to the need to promote economic development cannot just be based on competition policy alone, and that this also needs to be flanked by effective regional, social, environmental and industrial policies. Believes, for example, that establishment of a coherent industrial policy framework for a particular sector would have more force than just a sectoral code on state aid within the context of competition policy;

Facing up to intensified world competition

13.Believes that the challenge of intensified world competition calls for individual competition policy cases to be looked at not just from the perspective of the Community market in isolation but in terms of the reality of world markets; stresses, moreover, the need to adjust the application of European and international rules on competition in the light of the imperatives of protecting small independent producers on regional markets, social protection of workers and environmental protection;

14.Calls for international rules on competition to be laid down as part of a new GATT round and for the principle of reciprocity between OECD States with regard to market access to be stressed;

15.Calls furthermore for all trade agreements entered into by the European Union to include a social clause stipulating that a high degree of preference will be accorded to imports from countries which ensure that labour standards based on ILO conventions are observed;

Competition policy and the EEA and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe

16.Welcomes the close integration of Community and EFTA competition policies within the EEA framework and calls for detailed analysis of how this is working in forthcoming annual reports;

17.Again underlines the particular challenge for Community competition policy posed by the economic transformation of Eastern and Central European countries. Calls for flexibility and understanding in view of the unprecedented nature of this process and transformation but requests a detailed Commission analysis of the problems raised;

The need for transparent, accountable, user-friendly and decentralised application of competition policy

18.Believes that all the above conditions must be met if Community competition policy is to win the broadest possible public support;

19.Calls for Commission accountability to the Parliament to be reinforced and for:

-the Commission's response to Parliament's annual resolution to be submitted within 6 weeks of its adoption,

-submission by the Commission of a specific calendar of competition policy activities for the coming year, and for all new Commission proposals and communications to go to the Parliament at the same time as they are sent to the Member States;

20.Regrets that Parliament was not consulted on the adoption of a Council resolution on the development of a universal service in the telecommunications sector, given the importance the European Parliament has attached to this issue, on behalf of European consumers;

21.Resolves to hold an annual hearing to establish the impact of competition policy on business, enterprise and employment and to assist in producing proposals for a more effective, accountable and decentralized application of EU competition policy;

22.Calls on the Commission to carry out a general examination of the political and economic goals of competition policy both inside the Union and in respect of non-member countries in the light of the new circumstances in which it must be implemented, particularly President Delor's White Paper, the European Economic Area, the economic recession and the rise in unemployment, and to adopt a Green Paper containing the results of the examination;

23.Insists on the need for Community competition policy to be made as clear and comprehensible as possible to all those concerned by it, and for Commission procedures in competition policy to be made even more transparent, rapid and effective, and also to respond to the procedural shortcomings that have been identified by the Court of First Instance and by the European Court of Justice;

24.Considers it necessary to increase the staff complement of DG IV, which is responsible for this area, so that the Commission can meet these requirements in the long term;

25.Considers that decentralised application of competition policy and respect of the principle of subsidiarity are important and useful principles, and welcomes the steps recently taken by the Commission in this regard. Insists, however, that these principles must not lead to re-nationalisation of competition policy or to uneven application of competition law from one part of the Community to another;

Merger control threshold

26.Welcomes the Commission's recent communication on this subject, and considers that it makes a powerful case for lowering the threshold. Regrets, therefore, the Commission's decision to postpone such a decision until 1996 at the earliest in view of the objections from certain Member States;

27.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the EFTA Surveillance Authority, the competition authorities in the Member States and the EFTA countries and the Governments and Parliaments of the Member States and the EFTA countries.