Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-27-Speech-2-207"
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"en.20050927.20.2-207"2
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".
Madam President, first of all, I can well understand the emotion that followed all of those accidents in August. Obviously the Commission cannot comment on the causes of those accidents: that is a job for the experts.
I would like to say to Mr Pafilis that we cannot draw a connection between liberalisation, the opening up of air travel to competition, and any safety issue that could be attributed to this opening up to competition. It could also be borne in mind that, at the same time as liberalising the internal market in air travel, the Commission strengthened the safety rules. The Community
in the field of aviation safety has grown considerably and changes in safety-related data show that the numbers of accidents and deaths have continued to fall since the launch of the liberalisation process. This process, at the same time, has made it possible to give many European citizens the option of cheaper air travel.
Having said that, safety is, now more than ever, a top priority for the aviation industry, and monitoring of Community aircraft, which is, of course, the responsibility of the national authorities, which have the freedom to refuse to grant a licence, is a point that we must monitor very carefully.
With regard to pre-flight checks, the provisions in force require Community airlines to comply with very strict safety standards. The applicable operational regulations have been drawn up by the Joint Aviation Authorities. These rules specify that an operator shall ensure that all personnel assigned to, or directly involved in, ground and flight operations are properly instructed, have demonstrated their abilities in their particular duties and are aware of their responsibilities and the relationship of such duties to the operation as a whole. I have quoted rules that could, Madam President, have been expressed in simpler terms, for which I apologise. I would really like European texts to be simpler, but this is a text by the Joint Aviation Authorities.
What I would like to say, in response to Mr Pafilis, is that, since the beginning of February, I have taken the initiative of asking the Council of Transport Ministers about the possibility of drawing up a European list of companies that have been subject to bans or flight restrictions. It has to be said that, due to the cautiousness of the Member States, we have progressed less quickly than I would have liked.
Then, this summer, came the air disasters of which you are aware and to which Mr Pafilis referred, and it was at that point that Parliament, presented with this amended proposal for a regulation, adopted, at the proposal of Mrs De Veyrac as rapporteur, some extremely positive amendments harmonising the criteria under which a company can be banned or have its flight options restricted. I think that this proposal can now be adopted fairly rapidly, in November. I will therefore be able to draw up this European blacklist, which, obviously, will enable citizens to be better informed regarding the quality of the air operator they are using.
Then there is the problem of third countries. The Commission has also worked to institute stricter controls with the famous SAFA Directive. That is indeed a directive, and it must be transposed in all Member States. It must be transposed before April 2006. By relying firstly on the draft regulation on the identity of the operator, which includes assessment criteria for companies that will enable us to get started on the blacklist, and also on the SAFA directive, transposed in all the Member States, with regard to the aircraft of third countries, this will give us an instrument that, I hope, will mark a very important step in aviation safety.
Those are the various points I wanted to make to Mr Pafilis who, quite rightly, questioned me on the safety of air transport."@en1
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