Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-015"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-11-15"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Economic and employment situation in the air transport sector and in the industrial and related services sectors2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20011115.2.4-015"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-11-15-Speech-4-0162
lpv:speaker	lp:Brian Simpson2
lpv:spoken text	"Madam President, I came to the Chamber this morning with a prepared speech about the situation in the airline industry. I have radically altered that, in view of what I have heard from the President-in-Office and the Commissioner this morning. Frankly, what we have heard is totally unacceptable. We are faced with a classic scenario of the Council of Ministers fiddling like some modern-day Nero while the aviation industry of the European Union burns. Madam President-in-Office, we are in a deep crisis. You, more than anybody else, should know that from your own Member State. Airlines have gone bankrupt. Others are on the brink of bankruptcy – and what response do we get? We get a suggestion that the Commission can go and sit down with the Americans and talk to them about the aid they are giving to try and level the playing field. By the time that happens there will not be a European civil aviation industry left to put on that level playing field! We need action now. We do not want fiddling at the edges, we want direct action so that our civil aviation industry can survive and have a future of its own. The response from the United States after the events of 11 September was direct and straight to the point. They made USD 5 billion available to their airlines straight away and offered another USD 10 billion in indirect aid to help them over other crises should they arise. And what did we do? We fiddled at the edges and said, "Well, we might do this" and, as Mrs Foster said, "Well, we said you could pay compensation for the lost days". That is not enough. We need direct action now. What appalled me today was the tone of the contribution from the Commission and the President-in-Office. It is as if they are accepting that airlines will have to go bust and that thousands of jobs will have to go, without doing anything to stop it. Before today I suspected that Member States wanted to use this crisis to consolidate the industry, to get rid of some of the airlines. Well, today the President-in-Office all but admitted that this is the case. If that is so, then I condemn it. Members of the trade unions are with us today in the gallery. I say to them: I give you the support of my group in the quest to keep a European civil aviation industry alive. Sadly, from what I have heard today, a similar commitment from the Council of Ministers seems to be a good way off. I just wonder, Madam President-in-Office, whether people in history will remember the Belgian presidency of the year 2001 as the presidency that oversaw the demise of Europe's civil aviation industry. ( )"@en1
lpv:spokenAs	member; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3,3 substitute; AGRI (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3,3 member; PES (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3 unknown; Labour Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3 vice-chair; Delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3,3 substitute; Delegation to the EU-Poland Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-10-08--2002-01-14)3,3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Applause"1 "Simpson (PSE )."1

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