Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-30-Speech-4-037"
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"en.20001130.1.4-037"2
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"Madam President, on behalf of the Socialists in the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy, I should like to make a few brief comments. The Commission has the merit of overcoming inactivity and contributing to a political solution. Parliament wants effective and coherent action for the sector. We know that the cause of accidents, which are becoming more numerous and more serious despite the technology now available, lies in the competitive madness in shipbuilding, leading to declining quality, and the absurd economic management of ageing fleets, which hinges on a strategy of drastic cuts in maintenance and crews.
Accidents are not just caused by the age and type of the vessel; they also occur because of the unscrupulousness of ship owners and operators who make use of every possible method to cut costs. Some of these have been repeatedly mentioned here, from flags of convenience to the permissiveness of port authorities and the complicity of classification societies. The problem of safety for this form of transport requires offenders to be penalised rigorously; imposing such penalties entails costs that must be shared by the whole sector worldwide, so that we do not penalise the European sector even more.
We agree with imposing a lower limit for personal injury or death and material damage, leaving the Member States free to raise these limits. We disagree with the idea according to which the fitness of classification societies depends on their size or even the number of inspectors on their staff, and prefer to be guided by the consequences of their certification, and therefore the system of civil liability compatible with the risk is necessary.
Allow me to make a comment on Portugal, which has been mentioned here. Portugal supported the changes to Directive 94/54 but disagrees with the abolition of classification societies by smaller countries. Classification society performance must be assessed by common criteria: number of accidents, incidents or detentions of inspected and certified ships that cause pollution. It is unrealistic to expect the number of accidents to fall without international coordination channelled through a political and entrepreneurial commitment that creates a new operational mentality."@en1
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