Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-06-Speech-4-385"
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"en.20000706.14.4-385"2
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". – Mr President, let me thank Mrs Peijs for her excellent report and for the work she put into it. The report show that short sea shipping is an issue on which there is the widest agreement between you, the Member States, and the Commission and the agreement goes further. I know of no one and no organisation which does not wish to see short sea shipping developed.
Mrs Peijs, thank you for your work. Thank you for ensuring that we all move in the same direction. Let us all do it together, the Commission will certainly do its best.
In the past we were guilty of talking short sea shipping down. We mentioned its potential and by doing so implicitly said that it was not really doing very well. But it is doing well. It was not much publicised but short sea shipping was the only mode of transport which, during the 90s, could more or less keep pace with the development of road transport.
So we must give credit to the short sea shipping industry. However there is always room for improvement. The shipping industry is the first to acknowledge this. Let me mention a few key issues in Mrs Peijs report. We need a comprehensive approach to make this a genuine door-to-door concept. It must be fully integrated in the transport chain and be offered through one-stop shops.
Several bottlenecks hamper the development of short sea shipping. The Commission services are currently identifying these bottlenecks and potential solutions, together with the new Member States and industry. One area which has already been identified is the diversity of documents required. To create more uniformity, the Commission intends to present a proposal by the end of the year aiming to harmonise certain ships' arrival and departure documents.
The efficiency of ports is crucial for short sea shipping, and also by the end of the year the Commission will present a package of measures intended to enhance that efficiency through liberalisation. Further, the old fashioned image of short sea shipping needs to be changed. That was already mentioned in the debate and I appreciate that very much.
National short sea promotion offices should play an essential role in implementing this policy. Some promotion offices already exist and the Commission encourages establishing further offices so that we can create a European network of promotion. In the debate the question of Community grants was raised, and I would like to answer the question here.
The main source of Community grants to short sea shipping has in the past been the PACT Programme, that is a Pilot Action for Combined Transport. Last year around 40% of the PACT budget was used to favour combined short sea shipping and that amounts to EUR 2.3 million. It will even be more in the 2000. We will increase the share up to 50%.
The DG responsible aims to continue this trend, so that short sea shipping will continue to receive its fair share of the PACT budget. In the forthcoming revision of PACT this principle could even be incorporated into the legal text.
Mr Purvis, has asked me to pass an invitation to Commissioner de Palacio. I certainly will do that and Mrs Palacio will enjoy a romantic trip to Scotland. It would be even more romantic if you would invite me to accompany her."@en1
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