A3-0023/94

Resolution on the negotiations regarding access to third countries' markets in the fields covered by Directive 90/531/EEC (the Utilities Directive)

The European Parliament,

-having regard to Directive 90/531/EEC of 17 September 1990,

-having regard to the Commission report concerning negotiations regarding access to third countries' markets in the fields covered by Directive 90/531/EEC (the Utilities Directive) (COM(93)0080),

-having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report by the Committee on External Economic Relations (A3-0023/94),

A.noting that the Agreement on the European Economic Area provides in its Article 65 and Annex XVI for the provisions of the Utilities Directive to be applied in the EFTA countries,

B.noting that the Europe Agreements signed on 16 December 1991 by the Community, its Member States, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland provide that at the end of the agreed transitional periods, national treatment will be granted to all Community undertakings, whatever their form, and full access to public-contract award procedures established on a reciprocal basis,

C.noting the request of 2 August 1990 whereby the Community, in pursuance of Article IX:6(b) of the GATT Agreement on Government Procurement, sought coverage of public and private entities operating in the telecommunications, electrical, water, urban transport, port and airport sectors and operating on the basis of special or exclusive rights,

D.regretting that the offers from the other parties to the GATT Agreement on Government Procurement are much less far-reaching than those of the European Union,

E.stressing the importance for European industry of access to American and Japanese contracts for telephone network equipment,

F.whereas the EC Treaty in no way prejudices the rules in Member States governing the system of property ownership (Article 222),

1.Welcomes the fact that businesses in the European Union can have access to public-sector contracts in the fields covered by the Utilities Directive in Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Austria;

2.Wishes the European Union to have access to the hydrocarbons market in Norway and wishes a formula complying with the rules of the Union to be worked out to this end;

3.Regrets the withdrawal of Switzerland from the EEA and its consequences with regard to public procurement in the fields covered by the Utilities Directive and considers it important that bilateral negotiations on future relations between the European Union and Switzerland should seek to apply the provisions of this Directive;

4.Approves the provisions of the European Agreements signed on 16 December 1991 with Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, which provide for full access on a reciprocal basis to the contract award procedures in the fields covered by the Utilities Directive at the end of a transitional period;

5.Supports the Commission's call on 2 August 1990 for an extension of the GATT Agreement on Government Procurement to cover new sectors;

6.Notes the differences between the partners of the European Union in the context of the GATT Agreement on Government Procurement;

7.Presses for American public-sector contracts to be made accessible to entities in the European Union on terms identical, including real possibilities of redress, to those on which European contracts are open to American producers in the sectors covered by the Directive and, as a consequence, for a non-restrictive definition of the concept of government procurement to be agreed with the United States, to include federal, subfederal and municipal contracts, and for so-called 'private' contracts to be rigorously transparent; rejects any agreement whose application would depend on the private or public nature of the ownership of the relevant awarding body;

8.Seeks greater clarity of the coverage implied by the Canadian offer;

9.Wishes the conditions to be established in the Japanese market for genuine competition with Japanese producers, bearing in mind especially the demand which can be expected from the imminent introduction of broad-band ISDN and the new generation of mobile portable communications equipment;

10.Takes the view that the Korean offer has many gaps, which should be the subject of negotiations towards enlarging a currently limited market, and calls for the new legislation regarding procurement of network equipment by Korea Telecom to be repealed; takes the view that Korea should also revise its position with regard to railways, urban transport, airports and water;

11.Approves Israel's offer;

12.Expects Hong Kong and Singapore to make offers in the future from which European businesses could benefit;

13.Notes the declarations on Government Procurement embodied in the Final Act of the GATT Uruguay Round, and encourages the Commission to continue with the ongoing negotiations on the principles of real reciprocity and real transparency and to ensure that legitimate demands for mutual market access do not lead to what is known as "aggressive reciprocity", which would inevitably lead to the abandoning of economic logic and rational thinking;

14.Considers it imperative that a satisfactory agreement be concluded on government procurement, in view of the fact that the awarding of public-works contracts in the sectors concerned is sometimes political and the resulting difficulty in opening them up to all the trading partners concerned;

15.Draws the Commission's attention to the need also to defend the interests of the European Union in respect of its own public-service markets (utilities sector), bearing in mind the conditions of competition, which are unfavourable to the European Union; to this end:

-the Commission must present in good time the periodic reports which it has undertaken to provide;

-the Commission should establish a European centre to monitor the utilities markets in all third countries and to provide regular updates on reciprocal access to markets;

-the Union's trade policy instruments should be improved, so that the Union can respond more effectively to unfair international trading practices;

16.Calls on the Commission, when negotiating with other States, to be mindful of the fact that protectionist action has negative repercussions on the importing country no less than the exporting country, because of "protection production costs" and "consumption costs";

17.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Governments of the Member States and the Secretariats of GATT and EFTA.