Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-078"
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"en.20000503.5.3-078"2
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"Mr President, I shall try to speak more slowly this time because last time I gave the interpreters a hard time by speaking at a Mediterranean tempo.
I come from a country which, because of its geographical location, has major transport problems when it comes to sending goods or persons to and from European cities and markets and when it comes to giving and taking. One can therefore quite easily understand the great interest this country and its representatives have in trans-European networks, which I wish to talk about today. However, not only as Greeks, but primarily as Europeans, we cannot but treat these networks
as an important tool in our endeavour to strengthen social and economic cohesion, employment and sustainable development in our struggle to achieve European integration. And, of course, I disagree with what Mrs Schroedter has just said.
We should indeed accord trans-European networks the real importance which they deserve. We should ensure that the financial resources spent on TENs are increased. What is more, allow me to say that we owe this increase since, in the last decade, the need to cut spending in view of the obligation to meet the criteria and objectives of Economic and Monetary Union also badly affected TEN funding. We should speed up the implementation of these projects by improving procedures and facilitating their funding through flexible public and private sector partnerships. We should see to it that we overcome any hurdles that are holding up 7 of the 14 Essen projects and leaving us exposed. And, of course, we should attach importance during the revision of the TEN guidelines to access to island regions and to regions which have difficulty obtaining access to the sea.
The Commission has presented us in its 1998 annual report with a rough picture of the state of progress in the construction of these networks, a picture which the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism – which, in the report under discussion, is asking for greater efficiency in the whole network construction operation – would like to be more detailed and informative. The main role in the whole of this extremely important operation for the future of Europe belongs to the Commission and we call on it, in collaboration with the Member States, to give absolute priority, in the full meaning and with all the implications of the word, to developing these main arteries in the body of Europe so that it can function in the way we all want it to and meet the expectations of European citizens.
In closing, I would like to thank and congratulate the chairman of the committee and rapporteur, my fellow countryman Konstantinos Hatzidakis, for the work which he has put into his report which, of course, should be adopted."@en1
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