EU Common Market Commmitee Chair, British MEP Harbour to EuroFora: Inside the EU, UK can shape rules

Chairman of EU Parliament's Internal Market and Consumers Protection Committee, Malcolm Harbour, British MEP, Member of the Bureau in the Conservatives and Reformers Group, from the Governing party of UK's Prime Minister Cameron, replying to "EuroFora"s questions in relation to the exceptionaly "hot" debate in Westminster, last night, between extreme EuroSceptics and British Prime Minister David Cameron, strongly defended the latter's stance on the need for the UK to stay inside the EU in order to be able to shape Common Market's Rules, etc., concretely illustrating that by the topical example of a Report adopted today by EU Parliament on Public Procurement :
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- "EuroFora" raised a "rather Politcal, but Timely, question during Harbour's Press Conference at EU Parliament in Strasbourg, together with Heide Ruhle,  Rapporteur on Publc Procurement rules  :

- "Yesterday, as you know, there was an important Debate in the House of Commons, and one of the issues that (British) Prime MInister Cameron highlighted was precisely the Common Market. Not only on Public Procurement, which is obviously an important issue, but also on several other issues, that you know very well. From what he said, they are one of the main Advantages for the UK and other Countries to be in the EU, in order to follow actively Developments from inside the EU, and be actively present".

- "What's your personal feeling about that,  how could this concrete issue of public procurement, as well as other main aspects of the Common Market, ameliorate People's Lives and Businesses in the UK and elsewhere, and what's the Main thurst of what (EU's) Common Market might offer to Countries like the UK in the foreseable future ?", we asked
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- "That's indeed a highly Political Question, for my Country (the UK), that I'm delighted to take up, since it has also more General Applications", observed from the outset Chairman Harbour, smiling.

 - "This is absolutely clear, as it has been so since the Beginning of the EU, because Open Public Procurement was one of the Founding Stones of the Single Market, well before the 1992 "Single Market Program", as it is seen in the Original Political intend behind the European Economic Community, it was one of the Crucial Areas, and that remains the case", he stressed.

 - "But I'd use it as an Example of why it's so Important for Britain, and, indeed, all Countries in the Single Market, to be Active, in Ensuring that the Tools of the Single Market continue to perform well", according to Chairman Harbour.

- "There is a lot of Criticism leveled against the EU, the EU Commission, for over-Regulating, for having  overly complexe and Expensive Regulation, which can potentialy undermine the benefits of having a Competitive Marketplace", the British Conservative MEP observed.

- "And I think that this is a case in point. Because it's quite clear that the Costs of operating the current Public Procuremnt Framework, relative to the Cross Border Business that it generates, are actually very High. But we (EU Parliament) have asked for Reforms, (i.e.) to improve and Simplify that, and take the Costs out, while, at the same time, making it work Better", experienced Chairman Harbour stressed.

- "Now, that's exactly the sort of Reform that my Prime Minister David Cameron is advocating", and "that's why I'm in a Group called "Conservatives and Reformers, and this is precisely why that kind of  Initiative is Widely supported across the (EU) Parliament", i.e. "to essentially deliver the Benefits of the Single Market, but in a better and more Effective way. And I think that, the more we speak about these Benefits, the more Clear it becomes, why we (f.ex. UK) need to be there, influencing from the inside".  
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Norway controversy
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- "And, of course,  if you look at the case of Norway, (Non-EU Member, but member of the EEA), which, some of my more Extreme Colegues think as a short of a raw "Model" for the UK, in terms of its relations with the Single Market, because Norway is extremely active, and very compliant, with all the Single Market rules. In many ways Norway delivers a More Unified and Complient Public Procurement System than any other Country in the Single Market"., he noted.

- "But yet,  they (Norway) do not actually have a Say on the Rules" ! We (EU Parliament) Consulted them, but they don't have a Formal Say on that. And that's why British Companies need to be there, and take Actively part into Shaping the Rules, under which we'll be doing Business in Future", President Harbour concluded.
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 - "I would agree with that", reacted the EU Parlilament's Rapporteur on public procurement, Mrs Heide Rühle, a "Green" German MEP.

+  However, "Norway really played a very Important Role, and we (EU Parliament) had Talks with the Norwegian Government, and we incorporated their Views" in the Draft Report, she went on to say.  Thus, "last week, I actually talked to the Chargé d' Affaires for Economic issues  in the (Norwegian) Embassy, and he said that he was very Pleased with the Result, and that he could live with that, that he's quite Happy with it", she concluded optimistically.

++ "And, Norway is quite Active into applying the Rules, + Norway does really  apply all the (EU) Rules on Public Procurement, actively, and  uses all the EU Rules", the German "Green" MEP added, a little bit too enthousiasticaly for this occasion, given the topical British debate for/against the EU currently at stake, (comp. supra)...

But she didn't, however, indicate what might have happened to Norwegian interests if herself and all the EU Parliament hadn't showed, at their own initiative, spontaneously, i.e. without being legally obliged, all that Good Will into "consulting" and taking into account Oslo's desiderata, even without being obliged to do so....

Making good fortune out of a "bad" moment, the British Chairman of the Common Market + Consumers protection Committee anounced that he had "invited the Norwegian Minister to come to speak in the (EU Parliament's) Committee soon", as he said Harbour with a half smile towards a radiant Ruhle, before rushing to get out...

Was Ruhle's unexpected intervention on Norway (see supra) one of the reasons for which an Official from Harbour's ECR group later told "EuroFora" that the UK might "soon" have a Referendum on EU issues to vote on ?

As Prime Minister Cameron had repeatedly stressed yesterday in the House of Commons : "I 'll ask first the British People" if a transfert of power is planned between London and Brussels... Could tomorrow's EU Summit give pretext for something like that ?