Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-31-Speech-3-154"
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"en.20010131.7.3-154"2
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"Mr President, I should like to begin by congratulating all those who made the agreement we are discussing this afternoon possible. Firstly the two rapporteurs, Mr Jarzembowski and Mr Swoboda, then the French Presidency and finally the Commission, more particularly the Commissioner, who is present this afternoon. She is to be congratulated amongst other reasons because, thanks to her presence on the Conciliation Committee, a number of significant factors were introduced allowing Parliament to emerge with the feeling of having won a specific victory, namely the document we are debating today, and not with the sense of having lost a battle over international passenger transport and national freight transport. Rather, it felt the decision had been postponed for strategic reasons. I therefore feel we are enjoying a very positive and constructive atmosphere, in which we can tackle tasks such as that before us today. Undoubtedly, the agreement represents a historic step forward in line with other developments we are currently involved in or are about to embark on and are going through Parliament, such as enlargement and the final introduction of the single currency.
Mr President, this decision does indeed open up the network, and as soon as it is opened, its management and rationalisation will be within our grasp. We need not concern ourselves about the time-scale of events, because the logic of events will allow us to move forward. That independent authority is important in the agreement. We are of course referring to the railways, attempting to promote them. Mr Jarzembowski said that the objective was for the user to pay the cost. True, that is the strategic objective, but at the moment we need to promote trains and therefore we should not rush things. At the outset, we need to offer incentives for transporting freight by train. To date, trains have not proved a viable way of transporting freight. Our freight trains travel 50% slower than trains in the United States and we have not yet been able to make a competitive offer. We need to improve the freight network, and the companies themselves have to be competitive as regards overcoming the difficulties of rail transport. Companies must be enabled to find a solution to sending their products from the company to the railway and once the destination is reached, from the railway to the company.
Unless this is achieved, we shall not move forward as we ought. We are all certainly aware that the proposals before us represent a net benefit to the environment. We must therefore express our appreciation to all those who have made this agreement possible and congratulate Parliament on its unanimity."@en1
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