Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-05-20-Speech-1-107-000"
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"en.20130520.17.1-107-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Belet for his work on this. We in this group are very thankful to him, his staff and others. We are happy at how the negotiations have come out, both inside and outside Parliament. We now have a deal that better reflects the need to preserve the existing high standards in some Member States and also to promote high standards elsewhere, both within the EU and outside.
I and my group believe that the trade union participation, particularly in the area of safety representation, is very important indeed. That this is done in a well-worded directive is better than in an ill-proposed regulation. We are glad to see that those trade union representatives will now be involved in drafting all major hazard reports. Independent representatives make for the highest of standards and the most open of transparent procedures, vital for this particular industry.
The report also promotes higher environmental standards – as we have already heard from my good colleague – for the industry, although there remain some concerns over the future of the Arctic, with which the EU has no natural geographical involvement. We can of course have influence on our companies that do business there and, by raising the standards of what our businesses can do there, we can expect to influence events elsewhere. We are also promoting greater use of renewable and low-carbon forms of energy, rather than relying too heavily upon oil and gas. However, it is important that the European Union makes use of its indigenous forms of energy, especially when it is in the form of a generator of so many thousands of jobs and allows millions access to energy which could otherwise cost far too much for them if we wait for things to be developed.
Drilling for oil and gas offshore remains dangerous and difficult and we need high safety standards in Europe. I believe they have just been strengthened by this directive and hope that they will cause the safety standards in our waters to rise. Lest we forget the effects of having poorer standards and what they mean, remember what happened on 6 July 1988 in British waters, when 167 men and women lost their lives on Piper Alpha. As 6 July this year will be the 25th anniversary of this, it is quite fitting that, in this year, we serve the very best of those memories with what we do now in terms of raising the standards and bringing an appropriate level of balanced representation from the workers themselves to ensure their own safety where they work.
I commend this report and thank very much all those who have been involved in it."@en1
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