A3-0188/94

Resolution on the Communication from the Commission to the Council on "Making the most of the Internal Market": Strategic Programme

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the strategic programme of the Commission of the European Communities on making the most of the internal market (COM(93)0632 - C3-0013/94),

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinions of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A3-0188/94),

A.Welcoming the presentation of the Commission's strategic programme believing that it forms the basis for an effective follow-up to the 1992 programme,

B.Considering that the various pending or proposed Commission initiatives contained in the strategic programme should also be consolidated in one place in the text and with a more explicit timetable for the initiatives, so that there is a clear and usable checklist as to the progress in achieving the strategic programme's objectives,

C.Returning to its suggestion that the strategic programme be given a higher public profile by means of a title such as "Follow-Through 92", which recalls the successes of the 1992 programme but recognizes that its achievements have to be further consolidated,

Consolidation of the legislative framework

1.Insists that the 17 pending proposals from the White Paper be adopted by the end of 1994, and also calls for decisive progress to be made as regards the legislation on the free movement of persons;

2.Calls on the Commission to state whether or not regulations are more appropriate legal instruments than directives, and to adopt a decision in this respect;

3.Considers, as regards the preparation of new internal market legislation that:

-unnecessary legislation can be minimized by providing the maximum scope for the mutual recognition approach, so long as subsequent annual reports show that this approach is really working and that overall Community standards are maintained at a sufficiently high level,

-the Commission should, nevertheless, not be intimidated by arguments about "subsidiarity" from putting forward new legislative proposals when appropriate,

- the likely need for new such proposals should be outlined in each annual report on the internal market, and each proposal should be evaluated in terms of real necessity, overall economic impact, proportionality and coherence with other measures;

The need for closer administrative cooperation between the Community and the Member States

4.Believes that administrative cooperation is one of the basic means of guaranteeing the proper operation of the internal market, but also draws attention to the urgent need to implement continuous assessment systems with adequate indicators of results;

5.Considers that relevant communications and data-exchange networks between administrations will have to be extended and calls for the coordinated, progressive introduction of an electronic mail network as a matter of urgency;

6.Calls for the reinforcement of all systems for preventing fresh obstacles and barriers to the internal market, and of ensuring mutual information and providing an early warning of serious and immediate threats;

7.Believes, if the internal market is to function properly, that Member States should not only be willing to help each other but be less reluctant to criticise each other in the case of shortcomings;

An internal market providing for even and equitable treatment at the highest possible level

8.Insists that the central problem of uneven enforcement of internal market rules be vigorously tackled, with much greater equivalence between national laws, administrative practices, controls, systems of redress and resources devoted to internal market management;

9.Criticizes, in particular, delays with transposition in such major sectors as company law, intellectual and industrial property, public markets and insurance, but considers that the quality and not just the quantity of national transpositions of Community laws should also be carefully monitored;

10.Insists that there be broadly equal effectiveness of redress in all Member States; welcomes the publication of the Green Paper on access to justice for consumers as a useful instrument for combating any abuses by economic operators as they affect consumers and users; demands, nonetheless, immediate and effective measures in this field;

11.Calls for an even greater effort with regard to quality, certification, marking and conformity policy;

The need for the fullest transparency and information on internal market matters

12.Stresses and reiterates the need for citizens and organizations to be supplied with clear, complete information on how the internal market affects them;

13.Calls for greater decisiveness and dispatch in the codification of Community law on the internal market, so as to ease access to information for the public in general and for economic and social operators in particular; further considers that new Commission proposals modifying existing Community laws should always incorporate the existing text;

14.Calls for rapid adoption of the proposal for a European Parliament and Council decision establishing a procedure for the exchange of information on national measures derogating from the principle of the free movement of goods within the Community, and for vigorous action by the Community in the case of unjustified national measures; further calls for formal notification procedures to be established for new legislation affecting services;

Democratic accountability on internal market matters

15.Resolves to hold two general internal market debates a year, one in the late autumn on the economic, social, regional, environmental and other effects of the internal market and one in the spring on the internal market management issues raised in the Commission's annual report;

16.Further considers that national parliaments should be encouraged to hold their national administrations to account on internal market matters, and should exchange information on any problems arising, both with each other and with the European Parliament;

17.Believes that procedures for ensuring greater democratic accountability will have to be established as regards the scrutiny of secondary legislation, as well as certain non-legislative questions of crucial importance for the future of the internal market such as progress in the setting of standards by non-Community bodies such as CEN, CENELEC and ETSI;

An unbureaucratic internal market

18.Considers it to be essential that the internal market lead to less and not more bureaucracy and paperwork, and that this crucial requirement should be regularly audited by the Community institutions, the Member States and the socio-economic interest groups, especially the representatives of SMEs;

19.Believes that a priority in this context must be a review of the need for statistics and the way in which they are collected in internal market matters; calls on the Commission to submit proposals as to how the burden on small and medium-sized firms of forwarding statistics (particularly in conjunction with the completion of VAT returns) can be eased;

The need for constant evaluation of the internal market

20.Believes that a system for assessing the strategic programme, using a number of precise indicators of results, would allow Parliament and other bodies to carry out specific checks on and surveillance of the programme's progress;

21.Calls on the Commission to carry out regular, in-depth, wide-ranging opinion polls on the progress of the internal market amongst consumers' and employers' organizations;

22.Welcomes the Commission's acceptance of its proposals to use the Economic and Social Committee as an internal market forum, but calls for this idea to be further developed; supports further use of Euro-Info centres in the evaluation process and systematic coverage of sectoral impacts of the internal market within the Panorama of EC Industry; emphasizes the importance of the proposed Commission study by 1996 of the overall business and economic implications of the internal market as a follow-up to the Cecchini report;

The need for close coordination with other Community objectives

23.Underlines the crucial importance of close coordination of the strategic programme with other Community objectives, and in particular economic and social cohesion;

24.Believes, moreover, that the strategic programme deals only superficially and in passing with the issue of improving the environment for the consumer; calls for an in-depth study on the positive or negative relationship between the internal market and the Community environment, and between the internal market and consumer protection policy;

External dimension of the internal market

25.Insist that there be effective controls on all the external frontiers so that there can be full confidence in the internal market, and remaining internal controls can be completely removed;

26.Calls for an in-depth study of the international dimension of the internal market and its relationship with such realities as the European Economic Area, the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, the implementation of NAFTA and the Union's special economic relations with Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries;

27.Calls for the opening up of the Community market to be matched by progress in opening up other world markets on the basis of broad reciprocity;

Adequate budgetary resources

28.Calls for the strategic programme to be backed up by sufficient budgetary and other means;

29.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.