mr president i welcome on behalf of the commission mr lehne's report adopted by the committee on economic and monetary affairs econ and adopted as a sign of strong consensus across the political groups
we are also pleased that this report strongly supports the white paper
the commission notes that the report agrees with the findings of this paper that victims of european community competition law infringements currently face considerable difficulties in claiming compensation for the harm suffered by them
we agree that measures must be taken to ensure full compensation of those victims
we also share the view that collective redress is crucial for consumers and small businesses in order to give them a realistic and efficient possibility to obtain compensation in cases of scattered damage
the commission also fully agrees with the econ committee report that excessive or abusive litigation must be avoided
to this end therefore collective redress mechanisms must include appropriate safeguards
finally we fully agree that its approach to collective redress must be consistent and that compatibility must therefore be ensured between initiatives targeted at various areas such as competition law or consumer protection laws
at the same time the commission welcomes the acknowledgement that a consistent approach to collective redress does not necessarily mean that all areas would have to be dealt with in one single horizontal instrument
the call for consistency must not unduly delay the development of measures identified as necessary for the full enforcement of the european community competition law
