Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-13-Speech-2-085"
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"en.20010213.4.2-085"2
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".
I am very pleased to welcome the report by Gilles Savary on the interoperability of the rail system, since it approves the common position of the Council without amendments. This common position incorporates 33 of the 46 amendments put forward at first reading.
Like the rapporteur, I think the future of the European transport system necessarily involves revitalising the rail sector.
As we have often had cause to point out, within the European Union, investments in railways are differentiated to a great extent on a national basis. It goes without saying that these national disparities represent a considerable obstacle to the development of rail transport in Europe, despite the many advantages offered by this less polluting form of transport. At the same time, the establishment of the internal market has brought about a considerable increase in the movement of goods and persons around the European Union. This increase has mainly benefited the road sector, particular as regards freight movement.
There are many reasons for the decline in the railways. One reason is that rail has been organised on individual national lines. There is no single market for railway services within the Community. Moreover, the networks are not always terribly well suited to new patterns in the organisation of economic activities and urbanisation, or indeed to the changes that these have entailed in traffic flows.
Having said that, it is clear that the future of the European transport system necessarily involves revitalising the rail sector and in short order. I am speaking in favour of this because I believe that rail has a key role to play in solving the mobility problems facing the European Union. On a daily basis, the citizens of Europe suffer from pollution, congestion and the risk of accidents as a result of an excessive dependence on roads, a dependence that has only been exacerbated in the course of the last thirty years. The objective of sustainable mobility is thus closely linked to revitalising the railways.
I am pleased, moreover, that the European Parliament has succeeded in getting through some amendments, which seek to have important social standards taken into greater consideration, such as vocational qualifications and conditions of health and safety at work.
The Council also took note of a number of sensitive areas, such as, for instance, the protection of the existing railway system, the need to adopt a system of exemptions or specific cases, such as the situation of some countries that are isolated from the rest of the Community, or the difference in track gauges. Similarly, the Council has put forward a realistic common position that draws up a gradual schedule for work and takes account of the problems which enlargement will present for the rail sector. For all these reasons I voted in favour of the Savary report."@en1
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