Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-209"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050222.14.2-209"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, Commissioner, firstly, I wish to thank Mr Grosch for his excellent cooperation and his very constructive method of working on the process of producing the committee’s proposal. All the political groups participated, and we are grateful for their having done so.
It is a matter, in this case, of shuttling between traditions and differences in the various Member States, but without losing sight of the objective, namely that of increasing people’s mobility in the EU and promoting road safety. It is now a question of embarking upon the long road towards a driving licence for the whole of the EU. This will take many years, but it is important for old driving licences to be replaced. The reason for this is the need to put a stop to driving licence tourism whereby driving licences are lost and new ones bought. We now have 110 varieties of licence, and the police cannot check whether a driving licence that might be confiscated, or one that they see, is genuine.
In Sweden, a situation existed a few years ago in which you could go into a back-street printer’s and buy a driving licence from your old country of origin and then go to the relevant Swedish authority and exchange the licence for a Swedish one. That is unacceptable, and we cannot have such a situation. I therefore think that the Council of Ministers needs to approve the replacement of old driving licences. It will take 60 years before we have an acceptable situation if we have to comply with the proposal by the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats. That is not to be tolerated. Change is vitally important for us as fellow road users, for we too are out and about on the roads and we want to know that the driving licences that exist are genuine. Where doctors or pilots are concerned, we should never accept a situation in which we did not know whether their papers and knowledge were genuine.
The Socialist Group in the European Parliament supports the greater part of the committee’s proposal. We do not think that endless doctors’ examinations of healthy drivers, as proposed by the Commission, are a good idea. Europe’s doctors must be used to treat people who are ill and for work in the health sphere, not for checking up on every driver. It is of course self-evident that doctors’ examinations and sight tests should be required when driving licences are issued.
Where mopeds and motorcycles are concerned, we in the PSE Group wish to encourage training and tests in a situation where drivers begin with mopeds and then advance through the classes of driving licence. We also want the Member States to be able to introduce rules concerning people’s having direct access, within those Member States, to heavy motorcycles when they reach the age of 21. National exemptions are accepted for cars and mopeds, and we therefore believe that this should also be the case for motorcycles. Where caravans and motorised campers are concerned, we share Mr Grosch’s position.
Finally, the development we anticipate is one in which more and more cars are equipped with safety devices such as alcohol locks and reminders to drivers to fasten their seat belts and switch their lights on. This is encouraged by the European Commission and by safety organisations. We must, therefore, also help produce a basic document entitling people to drive vehicles: a driving licence that is genuine, reliable and up-to-date."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples