Brussels, 29/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, Commissioner Frits Bolkestein outlined the progress on various 'internal market' and 'financial services' dossiers. He gave the following indications:
Data protection: At the start of May the Commission should present a report on the implementation of the Directive on data protection. 'Some member states must do more to facilitate the transfer of data,' indicated the Commissioner
Horizontal Directive on services: Work is already well advanced and the Commission should issue a draft Directive in September.
Sales: The Commissioner noted that there remain problems in the Council over the adoption of the Directive harmonising the rules for discount product sales. He called upon the parliamentarians to put pressure on governments, notably Germany, in order to accelerate the process.
PTO: The Parliament rapporteur, Klaus-Heiner Lehne (CDU), and Commissioner Bolkestein agreed to assure that the 'press exaggerates' the difficulties in the Council and Parliament over the adoption of the Directive providing a framework for public tender offerings. Frits Bolkestein hoped that the competitiveness Council will manage to reach, during its meeting on 19 May, not an agreement, but 'clear guidelines' that will allow the Parliament to progress. Klaus-Heiner Lehne underlined that the legal committee has issued 31 amendments to his report and the economic committee 250, believing that the Parliament will be able to prove itself to be 'reasonable' by not reopening closed debates during the talks on the first draft PTO Directive. The deadline for filing the amendments has been set for 5 May.
Public procurement: The Commissioner hoped that the two public procurement Directives will be adopted before the end of the legislature, as they are fundamental for the European economy: 'public procurement represents 11% of combined GDP for the member states and 40% of the German economy'. Nevertheless, the rapporteur, Steffano Zappalà (Forza Italia) expressed his dissatisfaction with the MEPs who's position, according to him, has not been taken into account by the Council and in the proposed modified Directive presented by the Commission. This is a criticism that concerns more the method than the basis, he added. To him it seems possible to reach an agreement in second reading, despite the 147 amendments submitted to the common position.
Audit and company management: The Commissioner confirmed that the Commission would present, 'by the end of the month of May,' its action plan and Communication on the auditing and regulating of enterprise. He added that the Commission does not have the intention of setting a financial limit for the responsibility of auditors, 'as this would not be a good signal for re-establishing investor confidence.