Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-181"
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"en.20011115.9.4-181"2
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"Mr President, the very recent and all too familiar disasters that have taken place in the Mont Blanc and Gotthard tunnels reveal the terrible truth about Europe’s current transport policy. And in this case, revealing the truth can only lead to condemnation.
The world of road transport seems to have broken free from any legal framework, from any control standards. Freight companies exempt themselves from having operating permits, work permits are becoming optional for drivers who increasingly come from outside the Union, when their driving times verge on the limit and when they themselves verge on sleep. How many more Gotthards and Mont Blancs must go up in flames before they are covered by strict legislation, by an effective system of controls which is both harmonised and trans-European? The residents of all sensitive or high-density areas and all professionals are calling for Europe to intervene and the matter is of the greatest urgency.
The most sensible course of action would now be to set up safety escorts for convoys of lorries in every major tunnel. Until this first safety measure is put in place, lives will still be in danger when these two accident-stricken tunnels are reopened. We must no longer be asked to show patience over this harmonisation of safety standards for tunnels. Instead, the finger must be clearly pointed and this political nervousness, this lack of commitment on the part of public authorities to the costly but necessary restructuring of underground tunnels must be condemned. Although a review of practices in the road transport sector is required, an in-depth discussion of our transport policy is no less needed. The tragedies that have taken place in these tunnels demonstrate the physical and ideological shortcomings of the ‘everything by road’ approach, which clogs up transport links and chokes the environment.
Let us open up our eyes, then, and cast off the blinkers that force us to see only roads, and we will finally see the entire European network of stations and railway lines that are almost completely overlooked in terms of providing piggyback transport. We will see that some ports, such as those in Italy, offer transit options that are likely to reduce traffic considerably on the road links of European trade. The memory of the victims of Gotthard and Mont Blanc must inspire us to adopt a new approach, one that is more forward looking and more respectful of our means of transport."@en1
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