Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-14-Speech-3-338"
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"en.20060614.20.3-338"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I should like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Costa, and the other shadow rapporteurs for the excellent team effort. Apart from a few minor details, we can more or less agree on everything, or at least the gist, and we as Parliament will be able to put forward a forceful opinion. Since 11 September, safety is, of course, more than ever, an important topic, and it goes without saying that aviation requires our particular attention, given the potentially devastating effect of attacks involving aircraft.
To my group, this means that we must always strive for the highest level of protection, but that this must be accompanied by a sufficient level of transparency and with respect for civil liberties. The protection efforts and related costs must be proportionate to the safety risks. In that light, the committee of experts which issues implementing decisions of this framework legislation should not simply be given
to make any proposals without any opposition. That is why Amendment 61, which formally provides for the establishment of an Advisory Group for interested parties, is important. We feel that not only industry, but also other organisations should be able to sit on this group, including passenger associations and, possibly, organisations that can give advice about civil liberties. We also ask for an annual report to be drawn up about the application of this regulation.
A second element on which we are agreed, and to which the rapporteur has already made reference, is that it should be clear who should cover the costs of security at airports. By extension, there should, of course, also be clarity about the distribution of the security costs in the entire transport sector. Is it the customers, industry, or perhaps the government? It will, of course, need to be a combination of the three, but what is important is that we must seek to establish the same European rules wherever we go. We talked about this during a previous meeting, Commissioner. You are supposed to present an initiative by the summer, and we are awaiting this with anticipation.
A major improvement in the Commission proposal is the fact that the chapter on safety on board civil aircraft has been added. It is about, amongst other things, the notorious sky marshals, armed security officials on board aircraft. We are, in principle, opposed to the presence of arms in aircraft because their misuse or accidents can have devastating consequences. As such, we are not fans of these measures. The problem is that the deployment of security officials is a matter for the Member States to decide, and that is also how it will be in future. Some countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have already used them, while others, such as Greece and Spain, have not. In that light, we welcome this additional measure as an opportunity for regulating this issue at least partly at European level by, for example, imposing uniform procedures and strict security regulations or by providing for cross-border training.
We too have tabled two amendments. The first is a formal amendment with regard to Gibraltar Airport in order to bring the text into line with existing agreements. The second is an amendment in which we ask for a European system to be set up for the certification of equipment which is used for the protection of airports, including X-ray scanners and such like. This issue should be tackled at European level, not least because not all Member States have the expertise needed to make the right choices about the security equipment, which is becoming ever more modern. Moreover, the maze of standards is a handicap for European industry compared to the US industry. I should like to ask for your support in this connection too."@en1
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