Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-10-Speech-1-137"
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"en.20020610.8.1-137"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we shall, I think, wrap up the parliamentary procedure to establish a European Maritime Safety Agency. The three parties involved, Parliament, the Council and the Commission have, I think, worked well together on the common objective of completing the procedure as quickly as possible, and all the members of the institutions involved in the procedure deserve our congratulations. Just to recap, in completing the first reading last June, Parliament adopted seventeen amendments, the main purpose of which was to strengthen the agency's independence vis-à-vis the Commission, to strengthen the powers of its administrative board, to allow Member States to ask the agency for technical assistance in certain cases and to include a provision on combating fraud. As regards the composition of the administrative board, Parliament rejected the involvement of European Parliament representatives in this agency, taking the view that experience in maritime safety should be the criterion for the appointment of members. Finally, it demanded that the evaluation report on the agency's activities be carried out by external experts.
In its common position, the Council accepted the European Parliament amendments which provide for the power of the agency to assist states applying for accession without the specific request of the Commission, the obligation of the agency to forward the findings of its visits to the Member States, not only to the Commission but also to the Member State concerned, the purely consultative role of the Commission in the adoption by the administrative board of the agency's work programme, the obligation to appoint members of the administrative board on the basis of their degree of relevant experience within the remit of the agency, the obligation of the executive director to respond to any requests for assistance from a Member State, the power of the administrative board to appoint or dismiss the executive director, with the Commission entitled to propose candidates who need not necessarily be appointed, and the concern to combat fraud.
Some of Parliament's amendments were partially incorporated in the common position, such as the provision concerning the composition of the agency's administrative board, on which Parliament decided not to be represented and which will finally consist of one representative from each Member State, four Commission representatives and four professionals appointed by the Commission, and the provision referring to the procedure for drawing up the work programme, where the Council specified that the executive director would submit the work programme to the administrative board after consulting the Commission and not just once it had received preliminary approval. This also applies to most of the provisions concerning the agency's budget and the provisions regarding the evaluation of the agency within five years of the agency taking up its responsibilities.
The new elements introduced by the Council in the proposal for a regulation include the rewording of Article 2 on the duties of the agency which makes the text clearer without altering its content, a reference to transparency and the protection of information, the removal of the reference to the seat of the agency, not that this will stop me from referring to it, the special adoption procedure for the work programme in the event of disagreement by the Commission, the representation of all the Member States on the administrative board and the participation of professionals not representative of branches without the right to vote, the power of the administrative board to examine specific issues without the presence of its professional members and the possibility of appointing or dismissing the executive director by a special majority of four-fifths of members.
On the basis of the above, we find that, in formulating its common position, the Council has taken account wholly or partly of a significant number of European Parliament amendments and that, generally, the Council has adhered to the spirit of the original proposal, which seeks to address problems in the sector of maritime safety and protection of the marine environment.
Nevertheless, we would draw your attention to the following points in the common position: representatives of professional branches are excluded and replaced by professionals appointed by the Commission who have no right to vote but may be excluded from meetings where this is considered advisable. A curious procedure has been introduced for the adoption of the agency's work programme in the event of disagreement by the Commission and, in order to maintain the balance between the two institutions, the common position requires, for the programme to be adopted in this specific instance, either a majority of two-thirds of members, but including the Commission representatives, or a unanimous vote by the representatives of the Member States. This ensures the balance between the Council and the Commission, if at the expense of making the decision-taking procedure more difficult. Apart from these reservations, the common position should be welcomed because it corresponds to Parliament's main objective, which is to make maritime transport safer and protect the maritime environment. We believe that this proposal must be adopted without delay.
Finally, as far as the seat of the new agency is concerned, I trust that it will be located in a city with a large, very old port, near a modern airport with direct flights to all the countries of the European Union, with all the necessary infrastructure, in a country of islands with a maritime history stretching back thousands of years, with the biggest merchant fleet in the world. Obviously, I am referring to Luxembourg..."@en1
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