Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-10-08-Speech-2-665-000"
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"en.20131008.47.2-665-000"2
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"Mr President, thank you very much indeed for inviting me to present this important single market report. I want also to thank the members of my committee, who worked with me on this important proposal. I see that a number of my shadow rapporteurs are here, I have not seen all of them today, but I can see in particular that Andreas Schwab is here, who played a very critical role in view of the fact that his constituency has an important watery boundary full of recreational craft on Lake Constance.
Sometimes people ask: Why do we need regulations, why do we need harmonised regulations for products? First of all, I think it is important to remember how important the manufacturing sector for recreational craft is in total, because there are many small businesses involved. It is estimated there are around 37 000 businesses. I am indebted to our own Library Service, by the way, which has done a very good briefing on this in updating these figures, because many jobs are created, not just in boatbuilders, but also in all the engine and marine manufacturers, and of course the people who use the boats as well.
What we have been seeking to obtain, as always with single market work, is to add value, to create that single market that is so crucial for manufacturers. I think what is interesting in this case is that, first of all, this is a proposal that has a long history, as far back as 1994. It was updated in 2003 and our task this time has been to update it, to deal with some of the fragmentation issues that are still there, where boatbuilders have experienced problems in not having their craft certified and having to get them inspected for individual markets, as well as to address environmental and safety issues.
Just to show you the extent of the reach of this, may I quote from a note that I got from the European Boating Industry, which contributed together with many other stakeholders to the consultations that led to this proposal. They said to me that these obligations increase the safety of operations or bring environmental benefits and put an end to the national variations that fragment the market and force manufacturers to adapt craft for various Member States.
I think there can be no clearer indication of the importance of creating a single market. Sometimes we forget that in these small building blocks we are creating a very important economic space, a whole European supply chain which is good for consumers, good for the environment and is also good for business.
What are the substantial points that we worked on here? First of all, the environmental performance of engines has been very significant. As with many other internal-combustion-powered transport equipment, those will be improved. I want to thank the Commission for being visionary enough to align those regulations with the United States, so this is a sign of a global industry emerging.
We have also made detailed changes, for example about classification of water craft; it is interesting that this was an idea that came from my committee and not from the Commission, but I want to thank the Commission for accepting that. Part of it was because we carried out our own impact assessment on this specific proposal, which we presented to the Council and they were persuaded by Parliament’s own impact assessment work to adopt this proposal. And in case any of you think that impact assessments are rather an obscure tool, you can see here how it has directly influenced the outcome. There have been a number of other detailed changes and I am sure that I may be able to pick those up later when I respond at the end of the debate.
I have great pleasure in presenting this proposal to you. It was adopted by a unanimous vote in my committee and I hope it will have the same treatment from the whole plenary tomorrow."@en1
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