Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-25-Speech-4-141"
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"en.20011025.3.4-141"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted this debate is happening at last. As the Member for the Val d’Aosta, I have been calling for a moment’s reflection in this House for many months, because I believe these issues should be resolved through institutional channels, this is the true alternative to futile protests. It is sad that this should happen on the day after the accident in the St Gotthard tunnel, which used to be referred to as one of the safest of tunnels, and, what is more, in Switzerland, which is the only European country – not yet part of the European Union – that has truly embarked on a policy of transferring freight from road to rail.
Mont Blanc has always been a symbol: it has been the symbol of mountaineering and also the symbol of road transport, with this tunnel built in the 1960s, which for many years was the most important tunnel in the Alps. Nobody could ever have imagined that we would see such intense growth in road transport, and I must say that 24 March 1999 was, for those who saw it, like me, a tragic day: the sight inside the tunnel was truly appalling.
I believe that all these events should serve to make it clear that extreme positions on both sides are useless. The extremist approach adopted by those who say ‘stop the HGVs’ is unrealistic. It offloads HGVs onto someone else and proposes a utopian world without transport and without mobility; naturally, however, we must also say no to those who call for ‘unlimited transport for all: the economy needs it.’ I believe this is an unsustainable position for mountain peoples like those in the Val d’Aosta, whom I represent, just as a pretence at a setting a limit would also be unsustainable. In fact, we are asking for a daily ceiling on HGV numbers – a genuinely effective serious limit. On the eve of this meeting, Società Autostrade, the motorway operator, told us that, according to the tunnel calculations, traffic will be 30 per cent lower than before the tragedy. I do not know if this will suffice, but I must say that the right approach is in the White Paper, the Alpine Convention transport protocol and the Swiss model. Under the swiss model, it was decided to agree to HGVs if they pay a tax and to invest the revenue, together with other capital, in rail tunnels. We want rail tunnels: we want the Turin-Lyon tunnel; we also want the Aosta-Martigny tunnel, this rail project that may acquire vital, decisive importance. In the meantime, however, we want real, serious limits for the sake of safety and the environment."@en1
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