Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-10-Speech-4-065-000"
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"en.20110310.5.4-065-000"2
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"Mr President, we have just spoken about natural disasters in the previous agenda item. In this case, it was a force of nature that brought air traffic to a complete standstill. Eyjafjallajökull – everyone probably knows of this volcano now – erupted last year and brought a large proportion of air traffic to a complete standstill. Incidentally, I just noticed once again during the previous speech that we have an excellent chair of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, because what he said is very similar to what I wanted to say. I will now try to change my speech somewhat.
It was indeed chaos – Mr Simpson has already said that. As Europeans, with high-tech capabilities and with so much already coordinated, we were, in fact, helpless when it came to dealing with this disaster and finding solutions to it. We realised that there were too few agreements in place. We then set up a task force. The questions that concerned us with regard to this issue were whether the task force actually has any valid results already that could be discussed and has it published any studies? I do not know of any at least. Have all of the international experts on such volcanic eruptions actually been consulted? After all, as we already discussed here in plenary last year, there are other parts of the world where volcanic eruptions are much more frequent than in Europe and they somehow manage to have up-to-date data and to coordinate the whole situation.
There is also something else that causes me concern. On 4 May, it was also mentioned in the Council of transport ministers that we need a linked-up European transport system. That can, of course, help in such cases. How far have we come in terms of being able to respond better in the event of a further volcanic eruption? We cannot predict this, of course. It will just happen.
I have one further question: do we know exactly what technology we would need to be able to deal with this situation better? In Germany, we now have appropriate devices at all weather stations that collect the data and are able to pass on this up-to-date data very quickly to the people responsible at the airlines and also to pilots so that they can decide whether or not it is safe to fly.
One further point which has not been mentioned yet but which I think is important in this context is the following: this ash crisis, and the subsequent problems it posed for the air transport industry, affected 10 million passengers and, of course, also many companies. Some passengers were stranded and were unable to continue their journeys. The question therefore arises as to how things stand with regard to passengers’ rights. We have rights for air passengers, but I have the impression that, in this case, they have not always been fully utilised. Perhaps we should also revise these passenger rights once more.
There are a lot of questions here. Mr Hahn, I do not know whether you will be able to answer them now, as transport is not actually your area. Otherwise, I am sure that the questions I raised in addition to the written question can be answered later. You will notice that this subject is of great concern to us. After all, the air transport industry is very important, and we therefore need a Single European Sky."@en1
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