Brussels, 11/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - Answering an oral question from the European Parliament internal market committee on Thursday 11 February, newly confirmed Commissioner Michel Barnier announced that, in the autumn, he would bring forward a policy paper - perhaps a Green Paper - which would open the debate on the need for a European response to the issue of gambling, and, in particular, online sports betting. “This is a new approach,” to games of chance, which are “not like other services”, he stated. He noted, with regard to the infringement procedures opened, but currently at a standstill, against nine member states, that legislative amendments had been proposed in four cases (Denmark, France, Italy and Hungary). These procedures “are still ongoing”, he said, pointing out that the European Court of Justice Santa Casa da Misericórdia ruling (case C-42/07) required that national restrictions on gambling be “justified” by points of general interest, and be “necessary and proportionate” and that it did not give member states any further latitude to impose national restrictions (see EUROPE 9972).
Chairman of the internal market committee, and former proponent of a minority parliamentary motion for the liberalisation of gambling, Malcolm Harbour (EPP, UK) felt that this was the ideal time for a review of the European Commission's overall strategy in this area. His German colleague, Andreas Schwab, said he was not persuaded by the Council argument that only member states were able to protect consumers and tackle organised crime. Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D, Germany) pointed out that the Commission, which backed liberalisation of the gambling market, had lost every time it went to the Court. Unlike Harbour and Heide Rühle (Greens, Germany), she said that European case law was consistent. Jürgen Creutzmann (ALDE, Germany) expressed the view that national regulation was best placed to tackle fraud. Former UK Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for gambling Timothy Kirkhope (CRE) was heavily critical of those MEPs who wanted to protect national monopolies. “That's not the open Europe I want,” he said. Cornelis de Jong (GUE/NGL, Netherlands) advocated stronger regulation at national level. Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Denmark), who drafted a Parliamentary initiative report in 2009 which recommended national regulation of online gambling, said she thought that this industry provided a fine opportunity to put into practice the vision Barnier set out in his hearing: “The internal market (should) work for citizens and not the other way round”. (M.B./transl.rt)