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'CRUNCH TIME' FOR MARKET LIBERALISATION
Tuesday 13th January 2004
A sweeping new proposal from the European Commission to open up the EU Market for Services will be announced in the European Parliament today.
The Commission plans will require EU Member States to dismantle many of their existing restrictive practices. They must allow cross-border trade from companies already registered for business in another EU country.
Timothy Kirkhope, the leading Conservative MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, said:
"This plan is long overdue. Services make up more than 50% of the European economy - we cannot have a properly functioning internal market if services are not included.
However, EU governments could present the biggest barrier to its success - and this new plan must not deflect their attention from other market reforms. Governments will have to significantly change their attitude to opening markets and mutually recognising each others' standards.
We expect EU governments to get on with dismantling market barriers and cutting red tape, but their record is far from encouraging. A simple proposal to mutually recognise sales promotions has still not been agreed after 18 months, and the liberalisation of financial services is going at a snail's pace.
This proposal signals a 'crunch time' for the single market. We call upon EU leaders to stop playing lip service to competitiveness and start taking the internal market seriously."
