Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-16-Speech-2-292"
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"en.20000516.11.2-292"2
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"Mr President, I believe that Gilles Savary has done magnificent work with these two reports. The routes of the railway structures on our continent were set a long time before Schuman made his famous speech on the
. In those days, military factors were given priority over the transport of people and goods. In my country, Spain, as in Russia, a different gauge to the rest of Europe was chosen in order to make a possible military invasion more difficult, which proves that European construction was not the priority for those people who took the decisions on railway routes.
Furthermore – as others have said – almost every country has constructed its network in a radial manner, around its capital, which is a serious obstacle to all those who want to create a different kind of route, such as from Spain to Germany or Italy to the UK without passing, for example, through Paris. Paris and many other capitals and almost all intra-European borders act as barriers for through rail routes. For this reason, the transport of passengers and goods by rail has been suffering for decades.
We have managed to harmonise the European economy, but the current rail network is not a useful instrument for the single market. Therefore, we resort to road transport, despite the fact that it creates pollution and is dangerous. We must free the citizens of Europe from the road monopoly by offering them working railways throughout the Union which are competitive in relation to other modes of transport.
The inclusion of a social clause seems to me to be an excellent idea. The railway workers are going to play an important role in interoperability and their interests must be addressed in the text of the directive. These workers have already paid the price for our forgetfulness. Their number has decreased by 500 000 in the last 15 years.
It is possible to revitalise the railway, as certain projects that have already been undertaken demonstrate. A Community which is undergoing a rapid process of integration and which is facing imminent enlargement needs to improve the efficiency and quality of the railway services it offers to customers. As Mr Savary says, this would contribute to achieving the objective of sustainable mobility and greater social and economic cohesion in Europe."@en1
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