Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-11-Speech-2-162"
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"en.20030211.7.2-162"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I, too, like oranges from Italy and kilts from Great Britain, but it is quite unnecessary to transport, for example, potatoes from Germany right through Europe, have them peeled in Italy and then transport them back again. That no longer has anything to do with the free movement of goods, nor indeed do the thousands and thousands of journeys by unladen lorries thundering at excessively high speed through Bavaria and Austria.
The Austria/Tyrol Transit Forum, one of Austria's largest NGOs, sums it up in precise terms: the fact is that, in 1991 and 2001, on the route through the Brenner Pass, NOx emissions from heavy goods vehicles increased by 18%. The fact is that journeys undertaken by HGVs travelling through Austrian territory have gone up by 50%. The fact is that in not one of the years since the Treaty was signed has any traffic been transferred from road to rail. On the contrary, the tonnage on the road over the Brenner has increased from 15 million tonnes of freight to 26 million. That amounts to an increase of 73%.
The people living along the transit routes are in despair. Many of them are farmers whose families have lived on their farms for centuries. It is not a matter of them being given a higher value, but they do live higher up. I beg you not to rob these people of their last hope.
My dear Georg, the ecopoint system was always, in essence, a compromise. I saw the Council's New Year's Eve resolution as the very last chance for us to find a common way ahead. By contrast, I see the Caveri report as the devastating result of the work of a lobby that is as hard as nails, a group with financial clout and much other power besides, by which I mean the hauliers.
It goes without saying that, in Austria too, there are groups trying to get their justified demands incorporated into policy. But the brutal and shameless way in which I saw this happening in the European Union was something really new – and I have quite a few years in politics behind me! I could well name several Members of this House – do not worry, I am not actually going to – who told me that they understood us Austrians, and were also on our side, but asked what else they could do, as their hauliers would finish them off.
I beg you, I beseech you, to reject the Caveri report and adopt the Danish presidency's compromise proposal. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Commissioner.
Quite apart from my speaking time, I would like to correct the young man over there; if he wants to regard the Alps, this wonderful work of God's hands, as nothing more than an obstacle to transport, then that is his business!"@en1
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