Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-04-Speech-2-359"
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"en.20060704.33.2-359"2
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"Mr President, passion for football, which has become a global and European passion tonight, offers me the opportunity to express my passion for Europeanism within the context of the transport sector as well. I am speaking as a Member from a Member State, Spain, whose rivers stopped being navigable some time ago and which is suffering from a drought that is becoming structural, thereby making it less and less possible for that navigability to be restored. I am therefore speaking as somebody with a healthy European envy of those countries that do have navigable waterways, both for passengers and for goods.
As the partner of a German, I well remember the admiration I felt when I saw the Rhine some years ago, because until then I had heard talk of river motorways, and I had even worked in that field, but I had never known what they were. It was the impression of seeing the Rhine with such well-regulated, organised, stately and at the same time efficient traffic that taught me what we were talking about and how Europe was getting to grips with such important transport routes.
I am therefore delighted as a European that this debate is finally coming to a successful conclusion, thanks to Mrs Sommer and also to my colleague Mr Stockmann. This will make it possible to harmonise river navigability, in terms both of social safety rules and of environmental rules, including the proposed non-reduction in those countries where that danger exists.
It only remains for me to express my hope that my city, which in 2008 will hold the international Expo on this very issue of water and sustainable development, can implement projects to restore the navigability of the River Ebro, amongst others, as a collective means of passenger transport, and naturally to promote its use for sporting and tourism purposes. I am therefore delighted that the safety and social rules also apply.
My dream is that, in the not too distant future, goods crossing the Pyrenees from Spain into France via a central tunnel will then travel along the Canal de Midi and the network of French canals and finally to the Rhine, whose ideal and wise regulation we are today turning into European law."@en1
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