This afternoon, in a meeting of the Parliament's Internal Market and Consumers Affairs Committee (IMCO), former Commissioner Prof. Mario MONTI, presented his report "New strategy to relaunch the Single Market". Liberals and Democrats welcome Monti's report in both his observations and in many of his proposals.

ALDE group leader Guy VERHOFSTADT says: "In these days the future cohesion of the European Union is at stake and the way ahead will strengthen this cohesion with an enormous financial commitment. But our cooperation and the billions of Euros we are talking about have their base in the single market and its tremendous effects on the welfare of our citizens and companies. I am grateful, that by proposing substantial improvements for the single market, Mario Monti reignites the debate about its effectiveness and its future."

Cristian BUSOI (PNL, Romania), who is the ALDE coordinator for IMCO, states: "Monti is right to call for a relaunch of the Single Market as the political and economic context has changed substantially since 1992. The digital agenda has taken off in a way that no-one could have predicted 20 years ago and globalisation has given rise to concerns about an uneven regulatory playing field."

"M. Monti underlines the critical problem for European companies doing business in the global market place where Europe's high environmental and social standards are not always shared. There is an urgent case for exporting such standards to our trade and cooperation partners if we wish to remain competitive as well as innovative in the years ahead", Busoi, adds.

Internal market expert Robert ROCHEFORT (Modem, France) spokesperson for the ALDE group on the Single Market for consumers and citizens, says: "M. Monti's statement that the Single Market is today less popular than ever due to an 'integration fatigue' and a 'market fatigue' maybe slightly exaggerated, but indeed, the European Institutions have to make a fresh effort in order to draw up legislative proposals on how to reignite the single market and increase the confidence of Europe's citizens.."

For more information, please contact:

Neil Corlett: +32-2-284 20 77 or +32-478-78 22 84

e-mail: neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu

Axel Heyer: +32-2-284 47 03 or +32-485-10 33 39