Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-07-Speech-4-053"
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"en.20090507.8.4-053"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank our chair, Paolo Costa, not only for producing this report but also for his work as chair of the committee over the past parliamentary period. We are very indebted to his hard work.
This report is a microcosm of Paolo Costa’s work, because it is a report that clearly shows that the wisdom of Solomon, allied to the diplomatic skills of the United Nations, is often needed when dealing with such technical details like ‘use it or lose it on the slot’. Our chair has been a very good Solomon and a very good United Nations diplomat during his time.
But yet again the civil aviation industry has demonstrated its ability to be disunited on this important issue, with big airlines clamouring for a suspension while low-cost airlines and airports are demanding no suspension. What concerns me is that the big airlines, backed up by their various alliances, will not be satisfied with one suspension but will demand others and, knowing the unhealthy, undemocratic influence that some of them have both in this and national parliaments, I believe today is a mere start of a process, sadly not the end.
My group will support the compromise proposed by our rapporteur and endorsed by the Committee on Transport and Tourism, but I stress that this suspension, as my colleague Georg Jarzembowski often says of the ‘use it or lose it’ clause, is a one-off for one period and does not represent a green light for further suspensions. If the Commission feels that further suspensions are needed, then they must be made part of a revised regulation, fully involving this Parliament and fully respecting the rights of this Parliament. It is ‘yes’ to debate, it is ‘yes’ to cooperation, but it is ‘no’ to comitology.
I recognise the perilous state that the aviation industry and airlines in particular face. I also understand that slots are not just about take-off and landings. They have become capital collateral on airlines’ financial books and our rapporteur is right when he states that this aspect needs to be revisited in the future.
Suspension of ‘use it or lose it’ will not affect London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle or Amsterdam Schiphol, but it will affect regional airports serving those hubs, because it is those routes the airlines will suspend. What airlines need to remember is that there are other stakeholders, not just them, that will be affected by this suspension.
Because the economic situation is not good and because we recognise the nonsense of flying empty aircraft, we will support our rapporteur on this occasion, but I hope our caveats to this have been duly noted for future reference, not only in this Chamber, but by the wider aviation industry as a whole.
Finally, as the Socialist coordinator, can I thank all my team, but also my fellow coordinators from other groups for the sterling work and the cooperation that we have shared with each other during the last five years. I also extend those thanks to Commissioner Tajani and his team in the time that he has been in the Transport Commissioner’s seat."@en1
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