Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-07-Speech-2-066-000"
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"en.20110607.7.2-066-000"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, when, hopefully, the plenary session shortly approves the agreement that we negotiated between the institutions with a large majority, we will be playing our part in a significant moment for the transport sector in Europe, a milestone that could signpost the direction for policy for decades to come. The immediate tangible impact on the ground will, of course, depend on the political willingness of the Member States to exploit the new opportunities or otherwise. We are not imposing anything. We are only making things possible, specifically, the application of a principle that we, Parliament, have been arguing for for a number of years, namely, the ‘polluter pays’ principle, the internalisation of external costs.
A number of old stagers amongst us know that we have already been fighting hard for this since 2006, when Mrs Wortmann-Kool led the previous review. This was followed, in 2008, by a Commission proposal which we have since been working on for three years. Those who have followed this dossier from close quarters know how laborious a job it was to get to this result. It is a compromise, a compromise between the institutions, but also a compromise between the institutions that, for instance, was backed by the minimum possible majority in the Council, and that also has its opponents here in Parliament. Some people think it is not ambitious enough, while others believe that it goes much too far. It is to the credit of the negotiating team and, specifically, of the shadow rapporteurs who, together with myself, Council staff and the Commission, reached this fragile equilibrium.
I ask all of you to support this package that we have achieved as a step in the right direction. It provides the Member States, for the first time, with the ability to also charge for noise and air pollution over and above the existing infrastructure charges which, in addition, are not consistently levied everywhere at the moment, and in a way that could stimulate the likes of fleet renewal. At the same time, it gives the Member States the ability to greater vary their charging depending on the time of day at which a lorry uses a road. This gives the governments control options in order to improve mobility.
At the same time, there is also a strong commitment – the strongest possible commitment – on the part of the Member States to reinvest the income generated into the transport system in order to make it more sustainable and to reinvest at least 15% of the income into the trans-European transport network. At the same time – and this was also an important issue for the European Parliament – there is clarity about the transparency requirement. Member States have to specify what level of income they obtain from the charges and what they are going to do with that money in order to bring about a better transport system.
The package is also due to be applied to a larger part of the fleet, specifically, all vehicles of 3.5 tonnes or above. That is the principle. That is the standard. This is what has been agreed. It is also to be applied to the entire motorway network. We put a strong emphasis on the importance of the interoperability of the system. This will mean one little box per goods vehicle to cross the whole of Europe, rather than 25 or 26. That is cast in stone in the legislation.
Finally, I have one more point to make, and it concerns the correlation tables. There has been quite some discussion about this. The solution that we came up with, taking the form of a number of declarations from the three institutions, would seem adequate to avoid setting a precedent.
To conclude, the Eurovignette is no miracle solution. We will not solve the mobility problem completely on the back of it, of course not. It is, however, an important part of a solution to bring about a more sustainable transport system. Cost incentives will make up an important element of this, but we will also have to do much more. What it is, though, is a step in the right direction and it is for that reason that I and those who worked with me are asking for your support."@en1
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