Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-11-Speech-2-152"
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"en.20030211.7.2-152"2
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"Mr President, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to the ecopoints, public perception of Austria is often of a country with an obstinate desire to force through its own interests in the teeth of the EU. This is a matter of concern for us all, and both the Austrian Greens and their counterparts in the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in this European Parliament regard this as an area in which more information is needed. This is not merely a problem for Austria alone; the whole of the Alps – a sensitive area – is also at stake. This is where I disagree with Mr Vermeer.
We should not be playing off the free movement of goods against the balance of the ecosystem. I agree with Mr Caveri that this is a problem for the whole of Europe, and so it is Europe that must make an attempt at resolving it.
Austria cannot solve on its own something that is a problem for the zone as a whole. Opinions can differ when it comes to the ecopoints. They were an instrument. Austria is open to accusations of not having done its homework, of not having found or even sought out allies. It may have been too cautious in what it did, in that rail capacity was not fully utilised. That may well be so.
We are waiting, however! We are waiting for a proposal from Europe. Today's debate would not even have been necessary if we had got a grip on the complex issue of transport in good time, with a fixed tariff for infrastructure costs, and with the transport infrastructure costs directive that we are so keen to have; it is even rumoured that the document actually exists, but nothing is known about it. Nor do we know whether there are measures specific to the sensitive areas in the Alps, or whether there are specific measures for sensitive zones in Europe.
I ask you to consider our amendments as an expression of our desire to thereby do justice to the problems with transport, the environment and health arising from both travel within the Alpine region and across it. Without an upper limit, it will not work. Limited and transitional solutions are not what we want. We need an effective solution until such time – the sooner, the better – as a directive on transport infrastructure costs enters into force.
I ask you to consider our proposals within the complex framework of a common European transport policy, which, if it were to be along the lines of the Alpine Convention, could be a model not only for the Austrian – or any other – Alps, but for all of Europe's sensitive areas. That would earn us the gratitude of all the Europeans who live in these regions."@en1
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