Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-28-Speech-3-086"
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"en.20040128.7.3-086"2
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"Mr President, I too would like to join in the expressions of gratitude to you, Madam Vice-President, for the idea for the Single Sky was yours. You succeeded in getting it through the high-level group and in laying to rest many misgivings at national level, and, although Mr Schmitt is right to criticise what has emerged from the conciliation procedure, we do all agree that the system has undergone fundamental change. It formerly consisted of cooperation under Eurocontrol, but under Eurocontrol alone. The Member States were sovereign, there was no Community law, and each and every state could escape scrutiny by insisting on its own sovereignty. With this legislation, we now have a Community law that nobody can evade, one that can be adopted and amended by a majority, and the Commission’s role as guardian and administrator of Community law means that no Member State can admit that it is doing something not quite right in its own airspace control and safety measures, while asserting that it is no business whatever of the Commission’s. On the contrary, there is a manifest sharing of responsibility, and the Commission is at the heart of the implementation of the new law. I see this as a very great step forward, and one that is very much to be welcomed. As a result, I believe, we will be able to reduce waiting times in the air and at airports, and this will be to the benefit of passengers and airlines. We will be more successful on the environmental front, as every aircraft that spends too much time in parking orbit has a disastrous effect on our environment, and we will make progress in terms of safety, for fragmented technology and cooperation will be a thing of the past.
Of course, I have to tell my socialist and post-communist friends that their belief that air navigation services must be provided by the public sector is one that I cannot go along with. If, though, we look back over recent years, let us ask ourselves where it was that service was always provided according to the book? Where was it that aircraft were left hanging in the air? The country that always occurs to my mind is one whose air navigation services are staffed by State officials, who do not necessarily make for better and more effective use of airspace. This, Commissioner, is something we need to discuss together as and when the opportunity arises. Following this legislative act, I believe, we will need – perhaps in two or three years’ time – a new initiative to introduce competition among air navigation services, where, as much as anywhere else, competition is required if performance is to be improved."@en1
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