Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-04-Speech-2-364"
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"en.20060704.34.2-364"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Sommer has already, today, quoted the German saying according to which a happy outcome is worth waiting for, and I believe that might be the case when it comes to this legislation on EU-OPS.
Fourthly, when we started work on EU-OPS, no account was taken of the special situation of express freight services at night, and on that, too, we and the interested parties have arrived at a compromise that makes proper provision for their specific flight schedules while not compromising safety standards.
Let me sum up by saying, once again, that a happy outcome is worth waiting for; whether it actually will be a happy one is something that will emerge from further work on the transposition of this directive. I ask all the groups in this House to give their support to this compromise that we have reached with the Council.
I do not want to spend a great deal of time reviewing the lengthy process whereby we worked out what we want, which involved us in two first readings and various proposals from the Commission over a period of six years. It has become clear to me that we MEPs are production line workers, and certainly many people have been working on this one.
I would like, once more, to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the good work that Mr Simpson did during the previous Parliament, and, in particular, for the constructive cooperation with all Members during this one. I am also appreciative of the good work the Commission has done as a mediator, particularly that done by Mr Salvarani – since both he and I are being kept from watching the football today, I am grateful to him for being here – and not least for the Council’s willingness to compromise.
The negotiations have produced a respectable result and one that adds value to Europe. Following the liberalisation of the European air transport sector and the great enlargement of 2004, we have now at last succeeded in harmonising all those technical standards and administrative regulations that have a bearing on the safety of civil aviation, and now it is high time we took the continuing expansion of air travel into account.
The laying down of safety standards – ranging from construction to the rules on the transport of hazardous goods, by way of regulations on instruments – takes up nearly 500 pages. Until very recently, there was controversy about sections O and Q, which deal with the training of cabin crew and the working hours, in-flight hours and rest periods of pilots, and that is not surprising, since this is where the safety issues also touch upon the social benefits of the persons concerned. I do nevertheless think that we have succeeded, here too, in defining a provisional platform that, for many countries, amounts to a marked improvement in safety standards.
Before second reading, the Committee on Transport and Tourism made some important changes. Firstly, we wanted to add a safeguard clause to prevent the situation arising in which, in countries with higher standards in law or in collective wage agreements, there would be an inevitable reduction in these standards with consequences for safety and for the social benefits of the personnel on board, and we succeeded in doing that.
Secondly, it became apparent from hearings and from numerous studies that cumulative fatigue in pilots as a result of inappropriate scheduling was a problem in need of further investigation even after the result we have achieved, and the Council has proposed that this problem be put back on the agenda in three years’ time. We in this House do not think this is enough, and we have been able to secure a new scientific/medical study after only two years, relating to both sections, including Section O.
Thirdly, the cabin crew were, right up to the last minute, raising with us their concerns about the upgrading of their status, and I believe that our amendments do justice to that insofar as it has a bearing on safety. In negotiations with the Council, we have managed to secure an undertaking that further harmonisation and better quality training will remain under consideration and that there will be a study into these issues too.
I too take the view that the safeguard clause is applicable to the very varied approaches taken in Europe to certification and the issue of licences, so any loss of status in individual countries is not to be attributed to our legislation."@en1
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