madam president looking at the positions that the european court of justice the council the commission and parliament have taken so far on gambling and betting i would draw the following conclusions
practically all member states and parliament reject the application of the country-of-origin and mutual-recognition principles in this particular and sensitive area
the court accepts that as it explicitly expressed once again in its judgment last september
for the commission this judgment means that it loses one of the key arguments that it has used in all infringement cases
member states are free to set their own policy objectives on betting and gambling and define in detail the level of protection they deem appropriate for their citizens
the council and parliament have been working hand in hand for years
in two thousand and six and two thousand and seven they both agreed on the exclusion of gambling and betting from the services directive and the audiovisual media services directive
the schaldemose report last year built on the work council had done under the french presidency and the same line has continued also under the swedish and the spanish presidency
in the schaldemose report i was responsible for the epp line and i share her view
commissioner i would like to ask you this do you share the view that the commission should finally start helping the member states in their fight against all illegal in other words unauthorised gambling offers rather than consume time on questions that have been answered already
if so how will it be tackled
