Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-17-Speech-4-141"
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"en.20020117.7.4-141"2
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"Madam President, despite being a woman of the South and not being a seafarer, which is a shame, because this sector still remains largely closed to women, I do not wish to miss this opportunity also to congratulate you on your new position.
I should also like to begin by congratulating both the Commission and the rapporteur, who highlights some of the aspects of strategic importance to maintaining the high professional standards that it is considered will meet the needs that the Union is going to have if it wishes to maintain, and put into practice, a mechanism on which it legislated recently, intended to ensure maritime safety. This mechanism requires a new professional approach in ports, new competences in the field of inspections and, above all, new requirements for the seafarers working in the Union’s exclusive economic zone.
It is true that all of these matters fall within the competence of Member States, but we have already seen that, in the field of safety, if there is no strategy there will be no effectiveness. We also know that 80% of accidents are attributed to crewmembers. This is an unacceptable factor, which has its roots in the fact that our ship-owners, and our entire maritime transport system, are dependent on a single factor that is decisive in human activity, for reasons of competitiveness and of the very survival of the industry, but which must be regulated within the Community
and also in the international institutions, whether it be the IMO or the ILO.
And yet, on this matter, the Member States have had no development strategy in place. Employment has fallen in this sector by 40% and salaries have also decreased. This has led to these professions, especially those of experienced officers, who are essential for navigating the specific coastal characteristics of the Union and for meeting the needs that I have mentioned, being taken over by citizens of third countries who do not even share the same language or the same ability to communicate.
This is why, Madam President, we repeat that the Commission must regulate and harmonise not only training courses but also pay and living conditions on board and the safety of crewmembers, and it must also act together with other economic blocs that have unilaterally expanded the market, leaving it uncontrolled, or which have established protectionist practices, as the United States has done.
We feel that the Commission is genuinely able to ensure – and is on the way to doing so – that the Member States continue to supply high-quality seafarers, in order not only to do justice to our past but also to our future."@en1
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