Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-17-Speech-3-322"
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"en.20010117.11.3-322"2
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"Mr President, I would like to add to the praise for Mr Costa, the rapporteur, because this is an extremely difficult subject and there are very conflicting opinions. Furthermore, he has had many amendments to work through. When all is said and done, I believe that the text presented is clear and consistent – no mean feat. I think that this contribution by the European Parliament will enable the Commission to make good progress in its subsequent work.
The issue of infrastructure charging is perhaps one of the most difficult for the general public to understand, but it is perhaps also the key to achieving our objective of a sustainable freedom of movement, given that the number of people travelling and the amount of freight transported within the Union is expected to increase considerably. Today, we know that road travel produces the most pollution but that it is also cheaper in terms of both infrastructure financing, which is often funded by the community, and in terms of its use. Therefore, if we really wish to travel without causing so much damage to the environment, we will certainly need to establish charging; that is, how the various types of transport pay the real price of costs.
All the same, I believe that we must be very aware that the rail system is not and will not for many years be in a position to compete to a great extent with road transport, in particular in terms of freight transport or combined transport links, which are urgent priorities. There are still considerable infrastructure costs and infrastructure and investment needs, and rail companies’ profits do not provide enough to cover them. Compared to road tolls, those on the railways are still too high with a concomitant strain on operating costs.
The issue of charging is therefore absolutely central to this matter and if we really wish to improve transport we need to be in a position to absorb efficiently the external costs of transport; as mentioned; in other words, so that road transport actually pays for all the costs it entails, as does rail transport, and so that the prices charged accurately reflect this transparency regarding costs.
We should not, however, close our eyes to one political stumbling block in all this. The political stumbling block is that our fellow citizens want to travel. They believe that they have the right to freedom of movement, something I think we should bear in mind, and very often they do not differentiate freight transport and the private car. This was obvious last September.
Therefore, on a political level, we must take a cautious approach, which should be both gradual and selective. A gradual approach means that we cannot impose extra costs on road travel until the railway is in a position to take over from it, and for the time being the railway is not in any such position. A selective approach is needed, because I believe that we have to distinguish between private transport and goods transport and that we may also have to gradually introduce taxes on heavy goods vehicles, if we really wish to improve pollution in regions like ours, that act as crossroads."@en1
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