Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-06-Speech-4-374"
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"en.20000706.14.4-374"2
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"Mr President, there are three aspects of Mrs Peijs' excellent report that I would like to highlight and illustrate by way of example. Although these come from my own constituency, I know they are representative of many similar regions.
First, intermodality and the need to optimise infrastructure links to the hinterland. This week we have voted for environmentally-friendly measures designed to encourage more freight on to rail. Good rail access into ports is vital in this context. We have to accept, however, that there are times when it is roads that provide the necessary access into the hinterland. I cite the placing on the TENs map of the A75 from Gretna to Stranraer, given its importance for sea transport to and from Northern Ireland. Second, the extent to which outlying regions and islands depend on the sea for contacts with their neighbours. We often look on the sea as something that separates communities. We are better viewing it as a highway that connects them.
My group endorses Amendments Nos 1 and 4 accordingly. I would add, though, that for environmental sustainability we should look upon connections between peninsulas in the same way.
In the west of Scotland the route from Gourock to Dunoon is twenty times as far by road as it is by sea and that from Tarbert to Portavadie is twenty five times as far. Third, it is essential that we continue to recognise the lifeline nature of many short sea shipping routes. I am not thinking just in terms of the need to sustain public service obligations in this context. We also need to find other permissible ways of reducing the costs associated with transport to island and outlying communities. Their economies are invariably fragile ones and it is just not good enough that the farmers on the Isle of Lewis have to pay twice as much for their hay as farmers living near Inverness. I hope the Commission will take such points into serious consideration when developing policy in the area."@en1
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