Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-11-Speech-3-244"
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"en.20040211.9.3-244"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Maritime Safety Agency has not been operating for very long. Nevertheless, the Commission has proposed extending its functions in three very specific and very topical areas: the fight against pollution caused by ships, the training of crews and marine protection.
I would like to point out that the recent maritime disasters have made it patently obvious that we need to adopt new measures at European level, not only involving the prevention of pollution, but also in relation to the provision and management of resources for combating pollution when it occurs.
The Agency’s actions in terms of combating pollution will supplement the provisions in force in the States of the Union and will give added value to the actions taken at Community level in the field of civil protection. It will supplement the Member States’ intervention systems and in no event will it replace them – nor is it intended to do so. To this end, the Agency will be able to charter specialised and multi-purpose ships. As well as the provision of adequate resources, the Agency will provide technical and scientific support in this area to the Member States and the Commission.
With regard to the minimum level of training for seamen, our proposal involves a simple comparison with the existing provision in the Regulation establishing the Agency, with a more important role for the Community, in accordance with Directive 2001/25/EC. It is therefore urged to contribute actively to the new procedures for the recognition of the qualifications of seamen issued in third countries.
Also in the field of the protection of citizens, our proposal is intended to take account of the new Community competence relating to improving the safety of ships and port installations. The Regulation introducing this new competence will enter into force soon, thanks to the agreement reached by Parliament and the Council at first reading. According to this agreement, the Commission will have to verify the effectiveness of the control procedures introduced by the States. The Agency's attendance at these inspections is entirely appropriate. An amendment proposed by Parliament to the text of the regulation relating to the Agency specifies the framework for this attendance and effectively restricts it to inspections in the private sector. Although this approach is more restrictive than the one we have advocated, the Commission could accept it.
By way of conclusion, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I note that the positions of the Council and Parliament in this regard are very close and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Mastorakis for the work he has done. I believe that the amendments are constructive and I believe that in this way we will be able to reach an agreement with Parliament quickly and, therefore, provide the Agency with these new competences, particularly for managing resources for combating marine pollution. This, together with the modification of the contribution of resources in this year's budget and future budgets, will mean that we have, at European level, ships for combating marine pollution at sea, in order to deal with something which we unfortunately cannot prevent, which is the possibility of new disasters occurring, such as the ones we have seen already, since there is no such thing as zero risk. We must try as far as possible to minimise the effects of these disasters, if any more take place."@en1
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