Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-12-Speech-1-066"
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"en.20010212.4.1-066"2
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".
Mr President, I would firstly like to thank the rapporteur, Mr van Dam and the whole of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism for the work they have carried out on this directive. As the rapporteur has pointed out, the directive is intended to incorporate into Community law the so-called BLU-code agreement, that is the code of practice for the safe loading and unloading of bulk carriers, which is already applied within the scope of the International Maritime Organisation, but which will not be mandatory until it is incorporated into Community law.
On that basis, I would like to point out that we can accept the majority of the amendments proposed, both by the rapporteur and by the different groups in general. We accept Amendments Nos 2, 5, 8, 10 and 15 in their entirety, and we accept Amendments Nos 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12 in principle, but we will have to revise the terms in which they are incorporated. However, we cannot accept Amendments Nos 4, 13, 14 and 16 for reasons which I will explain.
Firstly, because, according to Amendment No 4, the competent authority will have to have experience in the loading and unloading of bulk carriers. We cannot accept this, if we take account of the principle of subsidiarity. It is not appropriate to interfere in the responsibilities of the Member States, which must have sufficient room for manoeuvre to create the competent authority which they deem to be most suitable, in order to guarantee the correct application of the directive and in order to carry out the role of arbitrator between the master of the ship and the terminal representative in the event of disputes.
We reject Amendment No 13 because it intends to assign the representative of the terminal the task of checking that standards for the installation of the black box or voyage data recorder are complied with. Ladies and gentlemen, the inclusion of this requirement in the directive is superfluous, since the same provision is included in two other, more general proposals for legislation in the field of marine safety. I am referring specifically to the proposal for a directive on control of the port State, in the Erika I package, and the proposal for a directive on the Community system for monitoring, control and information on marine traffic which appears in the Erika II package. Above all, by means of this latest proposal, we are going to guarantee the incorporation of black boxes in all Community ships. This will happen in different stages, but it will eventually apply to all ships. By way of clarification, the intention is that black boxes will be incorporated in new goods ships as from 1 July 2002; and that for existing goods ships, in the case of those of 20 000 tonnes gross or more, this will apply from 1 January 2007 and for those of between 3 000 and 20 000 tonnes, from 1 January 2008.
Amendment No 14, which refers to an element of one of the technical annexes, contravenes the BLU Code, the code of practice for the safety of loading and unloading of bulk carriers, and the principles of the directive with regard to the shared responsibility of the master of the ship and the terminal representative, in relation to certain aspects of safety in the interaction between the ship and the coast.
Lastly, we cannot accept Amendment No 16 which seeks to lay down qualifications for crews which are not included in the STCW Convention (International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers), because it would discriminate against Community crews.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will end by once again thanking the rapporteur, Mr van Dam, and the whole of the committee, for their work. This is another of the initiatives presented during last year by the Commission in order to step up the demands and requirements for marine safety, which will enable us, if not to prevent all marine disasters, because that would be difficult, since there is always the possibility of uncontrollable causes, at least to enormously restrict the risks. As has been pointed out, over the last ten years more than 780 people have been lost in accidents involving bulk carriers within Community territory. We believe that that is something that we cannot sit back and accept when measures can be adopted to guarantee the safety of crew members' lives. We are not talking here only about the problem of marine pollution, which we mentioned, for example, in relation to double hull oil tankers; we are talking about something which goes much further, that is, the safety of the crews on Community ships and the ships which visit our shores.
Furthermore, ladies and gentlemen, we are once again combating unfair competition from ships that are sometimes sub-standard or which show little concern for checking and monitoring the whole issue of ship safety. We also have to take account of the way in which bulk carriers are loaded and unloaded. I believe that, with all these measures, the safety package is well focused within the Community sphere, and we can view 2000, in a way, as having been the year of marine safety, from the point of view of the maritime sector. The other day we presented in writing the measures on documentation in the coastal shipping sector and I hope that tomorrow the Commission will give the green light to the ports package. Ladies and gentlemen, during 2001 we are going to continue working in the maritime sphere in order to give it all the impetus, dynamism and scope it needs to absorb some of the demand for transport and to be fully integrated into an intermodal transport system which is more rational and more respectful of the environment."@en1
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