Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-24-Speech-2-280"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070424.46.2-280"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, I would like to begin by quoting from Joseph Conrad, possibly the greatest mariner in the world, who in ‘The Mirror of the Sea’ wrote: ‘Impenetrable and heartless, the sea has given nothing of itself to the suitors for its precarious favours. As if it were too great, too mighty for common virtues, the ocean has no compassion, no faith, no law, no memory.’
These words were written by Conrad towards the end of the great age of sail, but the sea still is a largely unpredictable element, and as Conrad may have said himself, subject not so much to itself, as to lawlessness. Marine navigation can therefore not be compared with inland navigation, particularly in Europe’s inland waterways, which frequently consist of man-made canals or artificially controlled and tamed rivers.
From this perspective, the Commission’s proposal to equate the liability of those carrying passengers at sea and those carrying them on inland waterways is completely erroneous. It is a good thing that the Committee on Transport and Tourism rejected this proposal. I hope that this is a course we can continue to steer in the voting at the plenary session.
I do not have enough time to enumerate all my other arguments, so I would like just to mention the fact that if we are seriously looking for a way to relieve road transport, which is what we are doing, we cannot put additional burdens on potential alternatives, of which inland navigation is one."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples