Heide Rühle, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – (DE) Mr President, I should like to thank the rapporteur for his excellent cooperation and for the open and transparent manner in which he prepared this report. It tackles important questions. Building people’s confidence in the internal market is a crucial task and, as well as addressing economic concerns, it will mean taking greater account of environmental and consumer issues. We had another example of shortcomings in that regard during the summer when Mattel, the world’s largest toy manufacturer, had to recall toys for the third time in just under a year. Members of the public rightly expect a rapid reaction here from the European Union and the European Commission, and we want to see a review of the Toy Safety Directive.

The report addresses the main issues including the role of fiscal policy, and here my position is very different from that of the previous speaker. I think it is right to flag up the risk of distorting competition if we cannot achieve closer tax harmonisation. This is another subject on which we are entitled to expect proposals from the Commission.

In our view, there are also problems with the statements on energy policy. Apart from the fact that the question of separating networks and consumer services is so centrally important — and has not been addressed here — we are sorry to see nuclear energy playing such a major role. The many unresolved safety questions in relation to nuclear energy, highlighted just this year by accidents at reactors in Germany and Sweden, are completely ignored, as is the continuing failure to tackle the problem of nuclear waste disposal and the fact that subsidiarity remains an issue. Member States have decided to get out of nuclear energy and I therefore think it is wrong that the European Union should intervene here with financial support.

Deregulation of postal services is another area where we find a lack of balance. We do not believe that the question of financing a universal service in small Member States and in remote areas has been properly tackled. Yet access to a universal service is crucial in terms of restoring people’s confidence in the internal market.