6. Points out that, despite the opportunities offered by a well-designed EU capital market, there can be no avoiding the fact that there are formidable obstacles in other areas such as taxation, especially practices that incentivise debt over equity, insolvency and accounting law; believes that in these areas EU harmonisation would not automatically bring added benefits, and that in this context there is no ne ...[+++]ed for an extension of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe;

6. Points out that, despite the opportunities offered by a well-designed EU capital market, there can be no avoiding the fact that there are formidable obstacles in other areas such as taxation, especially practices that incentivise debt over equity, insolvency and accounting law; believes that in these areas EU harmonisation would not automatically bring added benefits, and that in this context there is no ne ...[+++]ed for an extension of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe;

27. Considers that net neutrality needs to be clearly defined in line with Parliament’s definitions and guaranteed and strictly enshrined in law in order to enable small and medium-sized enterprises, non-governmental organisations, and other social and economic actors to take advantage of all the opportunities of the digital market;

Better access to tenders on the public market, greater participation in the standardisation process, increased awareness of intellectual property rights, and support for inter-enterprise cooperation, particularly in border regions, will help SMEs to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by the internal market.

The main grounds underlying this initiative can be distinguished as the establishment of a more homogenous reference framework for company law in order to facilitate cross-border establishment and restructuring; the creation of conditions to prevent a repetition of recent corporate scandals – among which the Parmalat scandal in my country stands out owing to its size – the consequences of which have severely affected millions of people’s livelihoods, pensions, jobs, savings and investments; making the most of the advantages offered by the internal market.

(i) step up efforts by all relevant parties - the Council, the European Parliament, the Commission, and the Member States - to ensure full implementation of the FSAP by 2005, and by 2003 for securities markets legislation; therefore, as highlighted by the European Council in Barcelona, the Council and the European Parliament need in particular to adopt as early as possible in 2002 the proposed Directives on Collateral, Market Abus ...[+++]e, Insurance Intermediaries, Distance Marketing of Financial Services, Financial conglomerates, Prospectuses and Pension Funds, and the International Accounting Standards Regulation; The Member States should ensure, as soon as possible, the implementation and enforceability of legislation already adopted by the Council (e.g. the Regulation preventing excessive charges on cross-border payments in the retail sector) as well as the setting of oriented policies specially addressed to the information and protection of financial consumers rights, which are sometimes made vulnerable by the fact that the consumers are not adequately informed on the last developments and new regulations that are offered for them by the single financial market;