INTERNAL MARKET : PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR REGULATION OF ONLINE GAMBLING.

Online gambling, a sensitive and growing activity, needs a legislative framework in Europe, according to members of the European Parliament. At the plenary session, on 11 February in Strasbourg, they urged the new Commissioner for Internal Market and Financial Services, Michel Barnier, to protect consumers from the danger of addictive gambling and fraud, which are hard to control in this type of cross-border phenomenon, and to give priority to adopting rules. This area was taken out of the scope of the Services Directive by member states in 2006. MEPs noted that under the subsidiarity principle and Court of Justice case law, the member states had an interest in - given the many state monopolies in this area - but also the right to regulate and control the gambling market, in keeping with their traditions and culture. Malcom Harbour (ECR, UK) nevertheless insisted that "this area can and must be regulated," if only because game suppliers must have a harmonised framework to know their rights and the restrictions imposed by certain member states.

BARNIER ANNOUNCES CONSULTATION

The states are encouraged "to restrict gambling, if we keep to an internal market-based approach," said Cornelis de Jong (GUE-NGL, Netherlands). The Court of Justice, in a ruling handed down in September 2009, acknowledged Portugal's right to limit...