Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-12-Speech-3-272"
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"en.20011212.9.3-272"2
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"Mr President, my colleagues, on behalf of my group I thank the rapporteurs for the preparation of their fine reports, and also for the good outcomes in conciliation. These statutory proposals belonging to the "Erika I" package contain essential measures for the increasing of marine safety. These matters have also made reasonably rapid progress, and in conciliation the essential changes to the texts demanded by Parliament have been incorporated.
In the case of the classification societies, the Community's authority needs to be increased with regard to the approval and control of these societies. As the rapporteur stated, the classification society must not be under the authority of the owners or builders of the vessels, or of others engaged in commercial activity in the sector. Inspections of vessels must also be increased. Extended inspections must be directed specifically at vessels which represent a risk. In the case of vessels on the "black list" which are associated with a high risk, the criteria for entry of the vessel to a port must be stricter. In order that accidents can be prevented in advance as effectively as possible, we need an advance notification obligation for vessels and mandatory inspections of high-risk vessels. The port control directive will improve the uniformity and effectiveness of the inspection procedure of port States. It is appropriate that vessels be furnished with Voyage Data Recorders in future, and that access to EU ports can be denied to vessels which are clearly in a poor condition. An accelerated phasing-in of double hull vessels must be managed in such a way as to avoid generating insurmountable problems with the scrapping of ships and the building of new ones. At the same time, the flexibility of oil transportations must be safeguarded. The safety of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution may be promoted by the flag States enforcing the currently valid conventions so as to make them obligatory. Along with the further tightening of regulations, care must be taken that the decisions to be made are realistic and feasible.
One of the points of emphasis of the EU's White Paper on transport is the favouring of water traffic in transportation. Because of its environmental friendliness, water traffic is indeed very suitable for heavy goods transportation. In the event of accidents, however, water routes are highly vulnerable, and environmental damage recognises no borders. For this reason, decisions made only within the Union are not sufficient; instead, questions of responsibility for marine safety must be dealt with on a worldwide basis. We need international agreements which also involve (for example) Russia, whose vessels will in future be sailing more and more in the world's seas via the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic."@en1
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