Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-18-Speech-2-141"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031118.6.2-141"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the House and the Conciliation Committee for their work in relation to the proposal for a Directive on access to the port services market. Allow me in particular to thank the chairman of the Conciliation Committee, Mr Imbeni, and the rapporteur, Mr Jarzembowski, for the hard work they have undertaken on such a complex issue.
We are therefore talking about something that is key to the development of short distance transport. Parliament's position is therefore maintained and self-handling has been restricted to on-board personnel. And, furthermore, with the social guarantees I referred to earlier.
In the initial proposal pilotage was considered a commercial service subject to all the rules. Parliament proposed its exclusion and in the end we have reached an agreement which means a degree of openness with regard to pilotage. But, let us make it very clear that we are not liberalising the piloting service. What we are talking about is, for example – and once again we are talking about cabotage and short sea shipping – the captain who uses a route on a daily basis, or two or three times a week, who knows the route perfectly, being able possibly to obtain authorisation not to require pilotage. We are talking about a measure which is key to short sea shipping
This is not going to affect trans-ocean traffic in which the ship docks at the same port once, twice or five times a year. This issue only affects those ships which have regular routes, that is, once again, the issue of short sea shipping.
I would like to say, ladies and gentlemen, that the Commission has been enormously flexible throughout this discussion. We believe that some of the measures proposed by the honourable Members have improved the texts – I have not referred to them, because they were not controversial. Others, which raised or reflected problems, even of a political nature, we have tried to balance as far as possible.
What remains in the end is the minimum, but it is a vital minimum, and I would like to insist on this point, vital in order to be able to promote cabotage, essentially cabotage within the European Union. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I would ask for your support, for your vote, for this compromise proposal which was reached the other day in the Conciliation Committee.
I would like once again to thank Mr Imbeni and of course Mr Jarzembowski for their work throughout this time.
The House is being asked to vote on a compromise approved by the Conciliation Committee. I would like to say very clearly that the Commission supports this compromise; although I know that certain honourable Members are opposed to it, I would like to ask you to reflect before rejecting this compromise. I believe this compromise is essential to European transport policy.
This compromise does not mean a complete liberalisation of port services, as I have heard throughout the previous debate. Far from it. All it means is a small degree of openness so that certain types of service can be carried out by means of self-handling, that is to say, only using on-board personnel.
Ladies and gentlemen, every day we talk about wanting transport which respects the environment and which is sustainable, that we want to promote short sea shipping, so we cannot then vote the next day against a measure which is going to facilitate the development of this type of transport.
What I would like to say to you is that we must be coherent with the proposals we make. The proposal we are voting on, particularly in the form it now takes following the discussions in Parliament, following Parliament’s amendments, following the negotiations with the Council, is a very balanced and very moderate proposal, but it can clearly serve to promote maritime cabotage, something which is essential to guaranteeing a sustainable transport system in Europe.
We have had three years of negotiations and I simply believe that rejecting this initiative would cause very serious problems for transport policy in the coming years.
I would like to remind you of some of the aspects of the text which will be put to the vote on Thursday. The initial proposal was limited to rules applicable within a given port. Well, Parliament firmly insisted on the need to address the issue of competition between ports and this point, which the Commission accepted, has been corrected in the final text, in agreement with the Council.
The Commission’s initial proposal referred to self-handling with on-board and land-based personnel. It is true; we opened up the issue of self-handling for companies with land-based personnel. Parliament raised two types of issue: one, the social guarantees to prevent social dumping, an issue which the Commission accepted, and two: restricting even further the margin of this self-handling and reducing it to on-board personnel.
At the moment we are only talking about on-board personnel. It is obvious that this self-handling by on-board personnel is going to function with short distance transport. It is not going to function with the great trans-ocean forms of transport because of the type of goods transported and the type of ship used."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples