Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-351"
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"en.20050222.18.2-351"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be able to present this proposal for a directive on river information services to you today. Its aim is to harmonise information services on inland waterways in the Community, and indeed Parliament called for such a directive in its resolution on the White Paper on European transport policy.
The Commission has acknowledged for many years that inland waterways offer enormous potential for substitution, given the problems of overuse experienced by other transport sectors. To put it another way, inland waterways transport is frequently more economical, more reliable and more environmentally friendly than other modes of transport.
River information services, which are based on modern information and communications technologies and which allow improvements to be made to the planning and management of traffic and transport, represent an outstanding opportunity for inland waterways. The services involved include the provision of information on inland waterways, conditions of navigability, the traffic situation and port and terminal capacities, as well as calamity abatement services.
River information services allow journeys to be planned more accurately and make it easier to adapt to traffic conditions and conditions of navigability, which means that they result in reduced fuel consumption, and hence in a reduction in emissions. They also make it possible to monitor the transport of hazardous goods, and, as a result, to react appropriately in the event of accidents or potential damage to the environment. The use of information services will help to modernise the river network, as well as increasing its safety, reliability and efficiency.
The directive serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it seeks to provide the governments that supply the services, the people who use them and the businesses that manufacture the relevant hardware and software with the security they need to invest in this field. Its second aim is to ensure that applications are interoperable and compatible at national and European level, and of course to ensure that continuity can be achieved with the services used by other modes of transport.
The directive does not force private users to use river information services, but we are convinced that the benefits of these services will encourage users to take advantage of them. We are also convinced that businesses will perceive RIS technology as a market opportunity, and offer it at a reasonable and affordable price. The fact that the internal waterways sector is made up mainly of small and medium-sized enterprises makes cost a key factor, and the Commission intends to monitor developments in this area closely.
The Council has reached a broad understanding, and I am delighted that the rapporteur and the committee responsible for the issue, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, have sought to reach agreement at first reading. The Council and Parliament have adopted a constructive approach that should enable us to adopt the directive without delay and to embark on the implementation of river information services. I should like to express my wholehearted thanks to Mrs Sommer and the Committee on Transport and Tourism for having supported this approach.
There are three issues that are worth emphasising; the interoperability of services, deadlines for implementation and correlation tables. Parliament was entirely right to place particular emphasis on the interoperability of services and the compatibility of equipment, as these matters lie at the very heart of the directive, and I should like to thank the rapporteur once again for this. A compromise has been reached whereby a deadline of 30 months will be set for implementation, and I believe this to be a reasonable deadline. Turning to the correlation tables, the Commission obviously regrets the fact that the obligation to provide such tables has been included only in a recital, and not in an article. Yet in spite of this difference of opinion, which must be settled at institutional level, it is our opinion that we cannot risk this directive not being adopted. Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to repeat that this directive will facilitate the flow of traffic on rivers, as well as making it safer and increasing its functionality. I believe that it is crucial for us to be able to exploit this transport and mobility potential, and this is why I should like to thank this House in advance for welcoming this proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council."@en1
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