Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-05-Speech-4-028"

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"en.20010705.2.4-028"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, throughout the European Union recreational craft are used mainly for leisure activities and I do not think this will change in the next few years. This leisure activity has become extremely popular over recent years. There are now over 3.5 million motor boats in the European Union and the number is rising. If you include sailing boats and rowing boats, there is one boat for every 70 citizens. The use of recreational craft – and here I must disagree somewhat with our rapporteur – is not totally without its problems. Certainly, exhaust emissions compared with overall exhaust emissions from other engines in the European Union are tiny. We have brought about a great many improvements with cars and lorries over recent years and we should seek to achieve fundamental improvements in the recreational craft sector. More importantly, people living on the banks of highly frequented inland waters live with the impression that the noise from motor boats is a constant source of disturbance, even at quiet times. The point here, I think, is that we need to reduce the level of noise generated by these recreational craft. People trying to relax at the weekend and local residents in particular sometimes have to put up with a great deal of disturbance, precisely because of the increase in the number of recreational craft. Nor must we underestimate the noise generated when the water is displaced by boats travelling at high speed. Implementing the directive will reduce noise and exhaust emission levels. I too think that the derogations proposed in committee are right. More importantly, I think the derogations for historic craft and self-build craft are justified. Building these craft often takes a long time and is a leisure activity in itself. We need to retain this. However, as I have already mentioned, recreational craft are used in areas in which there are large numbers of people trying to relax, which is why it is especially important to keep on reducing noise pollution and why I think it would be wrong to allow any further derogations. However, I think it is right that, even with the need for harmonisation, Member States should still be able to issue stricter requirements for inland waters used for drinking water supplies. This has nothing to do with making inland waters off limits; it is a move towards reducing costs."@en1

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