Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-09-Speech-3-116"
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"en.20070509.14.3-116"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats welcomes the agreement reached with the Council at first reading. This is a good example of excellent cooperation. Naturally, we also thank the rapporteur, Mr Costa, for his extremely committed work.
The fact that we are taking a practical step towards reducing the number of traffic-accident fatalities is important, as it is of course insufficient to merely fit new trucks with new lateral blind spot mirrors; in addition, it is of prime importance that the many trucks already in service be retrofitted, as the Vice-President rightly said.
It is regrettable, however, Mr State Secretary, that the Council opposed the rapid solution called for by Parliament. We called for 30 June 2008 – entirely rightly, as a matter of fact. As you know, I represent the same country as you, and we must think about how matters can be speeded up within a federal structure. It is unacceptable that the existence of a bicameral system in Germany should render swift action impossible. I have no intention of speaking about the catalogue of fines for violations of rest periods and driving times now, but we have to think of ways to enable rapid response. The measures are undisputed. Naturally, I should have much preferred agreement on the deadline of 30 June 2008. Nevertheless, for practical reasons, we decided to compromise with you on the deadline of 31 March 2009; for, if agreement had not been reached at first reading and the matter had gone to second reading, more time would have been lost. Thus, the compromise is a very practical solution.
Finally, I should like to appeal to private enterprise not to exploit the deadline. Private enterprises can retrofit their trucks with the new mirrors early, on time and quickly, as they, too, should have a great interest in preventing accidents – not to mention accidents involving fatalities. Consequently, we hope that a consensus can be reached quickly tomorrow, that all of this is soon on the statute book, and that private enterprise is quicker to act than we have been."@en1
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