Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-12-Speech-1-096"
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"en.20030512.8.1-096"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as all those who have spoken before me have already said, Mr Nicholson really has done an excellent job, succeeding in convincing a large part – if not all – of the Commission of the validity of the proposals for compromise amendments he has put forward, which are very appropriate and necessary.
Commissioner, we fully agree with the Commission that the measure is appropriate and necessary; previous speakers have already explained why. We need to give consumers and air transport users increasing guarantees, and we need, as has been said, gradually to achieve a situation where the sector is regulated and rights are protected in this field, in order to provide the same possibility of development and to restore consumer confidence.
It is, however, true, Commissioner – and I regret to say that this does not appear to be a new scenario – that, although you followed a sound, effective line with regard to air transport, the competent services of the Commission then took – and not for the first time – a rather too rigid approach when it came to specifics.
As you are quite aware, I am the rapporteur for the measure on overbooking, with regard to which we encountered the same rigidity as we are experiencing today in the field of insurance. What do I mean by rigidity? I mean an approach that is a little oversimplistic, which does not, indeed, take into account the two fundamental factors already mentioned. Firstly, there are different kinds of air transport: the major airlines are one thing but the regional airlines are another, and private operators – as in this case – are quite another. The second factor which is being overlooked is that this is a difficult time for the sector, not so much because of economic trends – September 11, the Middle East, the war in Iraq and now SARS which, as you know, Commissioner, has already done twice as much damage to the air traffic sector as Iraq – as the fact that, in the face of these economic difficulties, while US airlines are receiving what is practically full, total support from the US Government, we, on the other hand, are leaving most of our airlines on their own to cope with the demands we are making of them and the changes we are asking them to make, however necessary these requests may be.
To sum up, then, it was necessary for a good measure to be proposed, but I believe that, on this occasion too, without Parliament’s astute contribution, the good end result we can adopt and endorse today might not have been achieved."@en1
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