Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-077"
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"en.20000503.5.3-077"2
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"Mr President, Madam Vice-President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, first let me very firmly reject Mrs Schroedter’s across-the-board criticism of the TENs. In fact she has insulted us as well, for Parliament and the Council adopted the 1996 guideline by codecision on a proposal from the Council. If that was such a terrible thing, the Greens should have opposed it at the time. They did not do so. Let me just mention two projects that have been successful.
I think that, from the environmental standpoint, the rail link across the Øresund was precisely the right thing to do. We want railways and we want links with remote regions. The new Anglo-Irish rail links are of great benefit to the environment and the region. The Greens are quite simply wrong to criticise the TENs as benefiting only the central and most densely populated states.
Secondly, I agree with Mr Ebner and others that, as far as the Brenner base-level tunnel is concerned, we have to think up some new ideas. Our committee proposes a four-sided agreement between the three states concerned and the Union. The Brenner base-level tunnel is an unusually large-scale project, and also a project with an unusually significant impact on the environment, for the Alps cannot be compared with the lowlands of the Netherlands or Friesland in Germany. The environmental situation in the Alps is particularly problematic. Quite simply, the way the noise and the stench of cars remains trapped in the valleys is quite different from conditions on flat ground. Something therefore needs to be done in this regard.
Above all, we must persuade governments not to shift the blame onto each other. The Italians say they will start building when the Austrians build. The Germans say they will begin building once the Austrians are building. The Austrians say they will start to build once the Germans and the Italians begin. So we need clear yardsticks and data on who pays what and when, and the Community must make a serious effort to get this whole project going.
Let me make two final comments. Madam Vice-President of the Commission. Take your time with the revision of the trans-European networks! First, you should take another look at all the projects in the light of today’s debate. We do not want more show projects, 14 or 15 show projects, with no guaranteed financing. In this revision, we should identify measures as priorities only if we are certain they can be financed over a period of 10-15 years. For the citizens will lose confidence in us if we declare certain projects to be priorities and then do not execute them. We must remind the Member States that they have committed themselves to guaranteeing the financing, committed themselves to executing the plan. Then we really must take them at their word and say: we will only list specific projects if they really are ready to be executed and financed. Take your time and reopen these difficult discussions with the Member States so that you, as the Commission, do not propose projects in which we make fools of ourselves in front of the citizens, but projects that are feasible!"@en1
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