Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-28-Speech-4-127"
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"en.19991028.3.4-127"2
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".
Mr President, as you said yourself, the report concerns a Commission proposal on the transport of dangerous goods by rail. In recent years, this transport has expanded considerably, thus increasing the risks of accidents occurring. The international transport of dangerous goods by rail is governed by the regulations concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by rail, usually known as RID. All the Member Sates are contracting parties to this Convention whose geographical scope extends beyond the European Union. This Convention only applies to cross-border transport and does not cover the national carriage of dangerous goods by rail. Therefore, and in order to ensure a high level of safety for national and international transport operations and to guarantee the elimination of distortions of competition, the European Union has adopted Directive 96/49/EC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by rail.
The main purpose of this Community legislation is to extend the above-mentioned regulations concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by rail (RID) to national transport, i.e., to transport operations within the national territory of each Member State.
The aforementioned directive entered into force in January 1997. However, this directive provided for a certain number of derogations, restrictions and exemptions. In particular, transitional provisions expiring on 1 January 1999 relating to the construction, use and conditions of carriage of new tanks and new receptacles for the transport of gas, allowed Member States to retain the provisions of their national legislation. The reason was that the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) had not yet completed work to standardise the construction and use of tanks and receptacles.
The present proposal aims to extend the aforementioned transitional period until 1 July 2001, or even longer for the transportation of pressure equipment for which no detailed technical specifications or no adequate references to the relevant European standards exist. In this case, the date of entry into force of the provisions of the directive is to be determined by the Committee set up on the basis of the directive. The reason for the postponement is that, due to delays in the standardisation work being carried out by the European Committee for Standardisation, the 1999 version of the RID does not incorporate standards for the construction and use of tanks and receptacles for transporting Class 2 gases.
The second objective of the present proposal is to amend certain provisions in Article 6 concerning derogations and to specify their acceptance procedure in more detail. In particular, it aims to define the conditions that must be met for the application of certain derogations authorising Member States, as an exceptional measure, to issue administrative authorisations valid on their territory alone to carry out “ad hoc” transport operations of dangerous goods.
The general public takes a great interest in the transport of dangerous goods and measures relating to such transport. Ensuring quality and safety standards in the carriage of goods by rail must be the main objective of any EU legislation in this field.
The key problem is that standards for the construction and use of tanks and receptacles for transporting Class 2 gases have not yet been agreed by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). In all Member States, there are various provisions in industrial and transport law concerning the packing and transportation of these gases. The national regulations can be very different, in particular on technical grounds and also for climatic reasons, which leads to a fragmentation of the market within the EU which is incompatible with the single market.
It is therefore difficult to explain to the general public why the necessary common European standards have not yet been incorporated into the Annex to the EU legislation. This is the reason why I cannot welcome this Commission proposal. I understand, however, the need to extend the deadlines in Directive 96/49, in order to preclude the need for Member States to amend their national legislation for a brief period, entailing extra expenditure for the Member States and industry.
With regard to the second part of the proposal specifying the conditions on which a transport operation can be considered an “ad hoc” transport operation and also regarding the procedure for the acceptance of derogations, I personally welcome and approve the Commission proposal which is, in fact, more stringent than the legislation in force today."@en1
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