Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-19-Speech-4-026"
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"en.20080619.2.4-026"2
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"Mr President, I support the report by the rapporteur Mrs Gurmai. Mr Vice-President, the time has arrived to implement intelligent transport systems and in doing so to open up a new era in the history of European transport. We know that implementation of intelligent transport systems is one of the most important instruments – we could even say weapons – at our disposal if we wish to respond appropriately to climate change. Just two years ago, here in a plenary session of the European Parliament, I said that, in my opinion, one of the most significant challenges facing transport today is clearly that of making intelligent transport systems widely available in Europe. Then, one year later, I presented the European Parliament’s review of the White Paper on European Transport Policy to this House, and Parliament unequivocally supported intelligent transport, as it does now, as one of the key priorities of European transport policy. Why, then, are we making such slow progress? The technology is widely available.
This includes the intelligent car, for example, and ICT-based urban traffic management systems; the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) will be on stream from 2009, and the Galileo system from 2013. One of European industry’s great strengths is its automotive sector, where we are highly successful in global competition, not least thanks to highly innovative small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the sector. Nowadays, moreover, developments in this sector span western and eastern Europe. In Budapest, for example, there are two important knowledge centres of European-level significance operating alongside the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The sector is therefore committed. Now it is time for action on the part of the Community, and above all on the part of the Member States. In the case of the Equal programme, for example, it must ensure that the necessary infrastructure investment is in place; in the case of the intelligent car and intelligent infrastructure initiative, it must provide an appropriate economic environment to foster their development. Of course it is not easy to introduce new technologies, but we can help to promote this process by means of judicious public procurement. We have a plethora of instruments at our disposal. We ask the Commission to draw up an appropriate, cross-sectoral strategy to facilitate implementation of intelligent transport systems.
Europe’s citizens waste valuable minutes, indeed hours, travelling. Meanwhile, vehicles pollute the atmosphere unnecessarily and personal mobility is under threat, in part because the price of fuel for vehicles used in this way is becoming prohibitive. Intelligent transport is a key component of the solution to these problems. As far as European citizens are concerned, people are now open to consider any means of resolving the problems outlined here. Let us therefore take action."@en1
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