Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-01-13-Speech-1-044-000"
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"en.20140113.16.1-044-000"2
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"Madam President, this is the second time we have dealt with this legislation in a short period, and I understand the rapporteur’s argument that it would be inappropriate to place new requirements on the van-making industry so soon. I will therefore support the rapporteur’s proposals on this. However, I cannot pretend not to have a sense of disappointment about the lack of ambition.
Car technology has moved forward at a tremendous rate over the past few years. The car industry has done really well, and there has been huge overlap in the technology used in cars and in vans. The important thing to remember is that businesses across Europe – vast numbers of businesses large and small – use vans, directly or indirectly. Vans are a key part of their activities, so reducing the cost of van operation should not be seen as an environmental pleasantry: it should be seen as absolutely central to making European businesses more efficient and helping them reduce their costs.
This is one of those occasions where we could have had a win-win solution, where we could have really raised our environmental ambitions, and that would have been good for business. It would have reduced business costs, and the technology was there to achieve those higher objectives.
So we gave in, I think: the Council gave in, and Members here gave in at what is a difficult time for us economically across Europe. We gave in to special pleading from the manufacturers. It would have been good to have heard Business Europe standing up for the users of vans and saying: ‘Look, if you can reduce the costs, that it is good for us and we will stand up for it.’ But no, Business Europe is also the lobby of the big groups, the big manufacturers, and they came forward with no such proposals.
So I see this as an opportunity missed, and I look forward to the Commission coming back with revised proposals in the years to come: looking at the technology that is then available, raising our ambitions and helping us to achieve the genuine win-win solution that is good for the environment and good for business."@en1
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