7. Emphasises the exclusion of service concessions from the scope of European procurement rules; reiterates that due account must be taken both of the complexity of the procedures and of the differences between Member States in terms of legal culture and practice with regard to service concessions; takes the view that the process of defining the term ‘service concession’ and establishing the legal framework governing such concessions has evolved as a result of the 2004 public procurement directives and the CJEU's supplementary case-law; insists that any proposal for a legal act dealing with service concessions would be justified only with a view to remedying distortions in the fu ...[+++]nctioning of the internal market; points out that such distortions have not hitherto been identified, and that a legal act on service concessions is therefore unnecessary if it is not geared to an identifiable improvement in the functioning of the internal market;

7. Emphasises the exclusion of service concessions from the scope of European procurement rules; reiterates that due account must be taken both of the complexity of the procedures and of the differences between Member States in terms of legal culture and practice with regard to service concessions; takes the view that the process of defining the term ‘service concession’ and establishing the legal framework governing such concessions has evolved as a result of the 2004 public procurement directives and the CJEU’s supplementary case-law; insists that any proposal for a legal act dealing with service concessions would be justified only with a view to remedying distortions in the fu ...[+++]nctioning of the internal market; points out that such distortions have not hitherto been identified, and that a legal act on service concessions is therefore unnecessary if it is not geared to an identifiable improvement in the functioning of the internal market;

14. Notes the Commission communication of 19 November 2009 on the development of public-private partnerships and awaits the relevant impact assessment with great interest; expects the Commission to draw lessons from failing PPPs; emphasises that due account must be taken of both the complexity of the procedures and the differences between the Member States in terms of legal culture and practice with regard to service concessions; takes the view that the process of defining the term ‘service concession’ and establishing the legal framework governing such concessions has evolved as a result of the 2004 public procurement directives and the CJEU's supplementary case-law; insists that any proposal for a legal act dealing with service conces ...[+++]sions would be justified only with a view to remedying distortions in the functioning of the internal market; points out that such distortions have not hitherto been identified, and that a legal act on service concessions is therefore unnecessary as long as it is not geared to an identifiable improvement in the functioning of the internal market;

45. Recalls that the EU electricity market is still suffering from a number of serious distortions, such as insufficient ownership-unbundling requirements, ineffective wholesale markets, increased market concentration, large direct and indirect subsidies, no non-discriminatory access to balancing facilities like the large hydro- storage power plants, non-segregated decommissioning funds and non-internalisation of external costs, and insists that the Commission tackle these issues in its reports on the internal electricity and gas markets at the end of the year and put forward new legislative initiatives to put an end to those huge market ...[+++] distortions which penalise renewable energy production;

39. Recalls that the EU electricity market is still suffering from a number of serious distortions, such as insufficient ownership unbundling requirements, ineffective wholesale markets, increased market concentration, large direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear power, no non-discriminatory access to storage power plants, non-segregated nuclear decommissioning funds and non-internalisation of external costs, and insists that the Commission tackle these issues in its reports on internal electricity and gas markets at the end of the year and put forward new legislative initiatives, to put an end to those huge market di ...[+++]stortions which penalise renewable energy production;

It should entail no distortion of competition, in the sense that it must not create discrimination between undertakings active on the same relevant market, and it should minimise market distortion, in the sense that the service should be provided in the most cost-effective manner and any compensation should be recovered by contributions that are spread as broadly as possible. These principles will ensure that public intervention is transparent and efficient, thereby increasing the rule of law (democratic dimension) and overall welfare (economic dimension).