Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-03-Speech-3-073"
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"en.20000503.5.3-073"2
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"Mr President, I too would like to congratulate Mr Hatzidakis warmly, in particular because he has produced a genuinely realistic report, but some of his observations, which are rather disturbing, should be of particular concern to us.
It is worth remembering that the decisions that led to the choice of these 14 major projects date back to the Essen Summit, which took place in 1994, that is, already six years ago now. Six years on from that decision, only half of these projects have made any real progress, and those projects are, by and large, concentrated in the northern half of the continent. A positive start has been made, but the situation looks pretty grim as regards the other projects and, in particular, for the remote regions, as Mr Collins has already pointed out. I am particularly thinking of the Southern link, which is supposed to link France, in particular Lyon, together with Turin and Trieste, to the rest of the Balkans that we would like to see firmly annexed to Europe. I am also thinking of the other part of Europe, comprising of Austria, with its specific problems mentioned by other speakers, Hungary, and the other countries of central Europe.
In this context, I would remind you that it is not only about opening up a Piedmont which is hidden away, a Piedmont stuck in the Alps. This is about connecting a whole region of the continent, the Balkans and central Europe, to the southern part of Europe, to France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and no real progress has been made as regards this project.
So, in response to what Mrs Schroedter said, I feel that we must not lose sight of the fact that what these major projects are mainly concerned with is the development of railway infrastructures. This particularly applies to this southern axis, which would make Paris only three and a half hours distant from Milan. There are, however, difficult choices to be made in order to avoid the huge pollution-related problems currently in the news in Austria, as well as in Italy and Germany. Choices have to be made; there must be investment and this decision, this choice that was made in Essen, is still no closer to being taken, six years down the line.
This concerns Member States, of course, and certainly Italy in particular, which has not supported this project with sufficient vigour, but it also concerns the Commission, as the rapporteur made very clear. It is the Commission’s duty to come up with measures which encourage both public authorities and private companies to invest in these huge trans-European networks. I therefore consider it to be crucial that the Commission submits new proposals so that these dossiers, which are still deadlocked, can proceed as quickly as possible."@en1
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