Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-184"
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"en.20011115.9.4-184"2
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"Mr President, it seems to be fate. On the final day of the last part-session – 24 October 2001 – we were discussing the reopening of the Mont Blanc tunnel. There was a bit of an argument – some were in favour, such as yours truly, and some wanted to put back the date of this major event. Suddenly, into the middle of the debate came the news of the other incident in the St Gotthard tunnel, an unforeseen incident similar to that which had occurred in the Mont Blanc tunnel and which we had thought would now never be repeated.
Those in favour of opening the Mont Blanc tunnel to traffic immediately were once again advocating this line of action on health grounds, basing their argument particularly on a document produced by the operating company, which, pompously – and maybe rightly – stated that the Mont Blanc tunnel, rebuilt after the accident, is now the safest in the world.
I remember announcements, official pronouncements, so to speak, describing the St Gotthard tunnel as the most important tunnel certainly in Europe if not in the world. Now we know that a very run-of-the-mill accident was enough in the past, is enough now and will be enough in future to turn these megasafe tunnels into people traps, and the many victims always pay with their lives. It is difficult to apportion blame for these incidents; moreover, that is not for us to do. However, one statistic does need to be mentioned here, for it concerns something for which we and, in particular, the Commission are responsible. Indeed, considering that five times as many vehicles pass through the St Gotthard tunnel as usually run on all the other major routes through the Alps, we are faced with a transport policy error, and that is partly the fault of Europe, for most of the vehicles, particularly the heavy goods vehicles, are European.
I would therefore put two questions to the Commission. What has happened to the directive on harmonising the minimum safety requirements for road and rail tunnels? And I would ask the Commission, what has happened to the action plan for an integrated transport policy in the Alpine region? When the answers have been given to these two questions, we can proceed to the usual road versus rail argument.
Lastly, Mr President, I do not agree that heavy goods vehicles should be banned from using the tunnel. Road haulage contractors have a right of passage and a right to provide a service as well."@en1
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