Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-18-Speech-3-393"
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"en.20080618.28.3-393"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, now it is my turn to extend greetings to you this evening. This is in some respects your baptism of fire and speaking as a French person I especially appreciate the fact that at Monday evening’s hearing and this evening too you spoke in French and fluently at that. This was a real pleasure. I would also like to thank my colleague Mr Liberadzki for the discussions that he led in the Committee on Transport and Tourism when examining this proposal for a directive on the transport of dangerous goods.
As has just been explained, Parliament already expressed its views on this proposal for a directive in September 2007 and I in turn welcome the fact that agreement has been reached with the Council and the Commission, which ultimately means that this evening’s discussion of the text is in many respects a mere formality. However, I would like to use this opportunity, because we are among friends as it were, to stress that in my view this text represents significant progress towards better control of the transport of dangerous goods within our borders and also that the problem of transporting goods, and especially dangerous ones, is of major concern to our fellow citizens and an important issue for sustainable development.
The volume of dangerous goods currently being transported within the European Union makes up some 10% of all goods in transit, which is a very large figure indeed. This represents 110 billion tonnes per kilometre a year, of which 58% is carried by road, which is an enormous amount, 25% by rail and 17% by inland waterway.
This directive, which is aimed at updating the existing provisions, is all the more creditable in these difficult times because it also merges four Directives into one piece of legislation. This represents a clear step towards greater transparency and it is very important that the people of Europe as a whole find our decisions intelligible.
Finally, I too am pleased that inland shipping has also been included in the directive. Much greater attention needs to be given to moving goods by waterway, for this is an environmentally-friendly mode of transport that can also provide an answer to the constant demand for a rebalancing of Europe’s transport system. Combining the Directives into a single piece of legislation will also bring greater clarity and greater transparency to the rules that apply in the current situation in which we are hoping and praying for greater intermodality of transport. I welcome this progressive step, especially for those working in the transport sector, at a time when the work of the European Union is not always sufficiently well explained and, unfortunately, is sometimes misunderstood by our fellow citizens."@en1
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