MEPs consider new plan to fill gaps in single market

Date: 19/06/1997

By Chris Johnstone

MEPS will next month consider proposals for a follow-up programme for the single market - before the ink has had time to dry on the action plan drawn up by the European Commission ahead of this week's Amsterdam summit.

Karl von Wogau, chairman of the European Parliament's economic, monetary affairs and industrial policy committee, is seeking fellow MEPs' support for a programme which would go beyond Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti's action plan.

Von Wogau's idea, outlined in a nine-point letter to Monti, is for another programme to run until 2002 which would fill in the gaps left by Monti's text and create a real home market for European business.

“The Parliament may propose going one step further by saying that, for some points, you may need more time,” he said.

Monti's own plan is aimed at wrapping up most single market measures by the start of 1999 to coincide with the beginning of economic and monetary union.

The later date of 2002 mentioned by the Parliament would coincide with the euro becoming a real notes and coins currency on the streets. It would also come at a time when the Union will have a clearer idea of which applicant countries will be allowed into the club in the next wave of enlargement.

The German MEP is calling for, among other things, a European economic policy to be drawn up, based on competition policy and some basic rules of taxation.

He also advocates a European health authority to take over responsibility for food safety and clearance for new foodstuffs and the combination of the three separate bodies which currently deal with standardisation to form one authority.

Von Wogau expects his committee to give its verdict on Monti's action plan and fill in the detail of the follow-up programme in July.

The Commission's plan takes a three-stage approach to completing the single market, starting with a tidying-up exercise to force member states to put into practice legislation already agreed, improve single market enforcement rules, and set dates for telecoms and electricity liberalisation to take effect.

The second stage involves the adoption of laws on biotechnology, the European Company Statute, the marketing of information services and the opening up of Europe's gas supply market to competition.

The final raft of measures embraces problematic issues where the Commission has already made proposals but must tread carefully - such as tax reform to tackle unfair competition, a new framework for taxing energy, and stepped up rights for consumers - and those where it has still to set out its stall.

The latter include proposals on pensions reform, new rules on state aids, late payments, copyright and related rights, and distance selling of financial services. On most of these issues, national governments have contested the Commission's power to act.