Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-14-Speech-2-005"
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would firstly like to warmly thank the four rapporteurs for the excellent work they have done, which means that the plenum is being presented with some generally positive reports, which move in the same direction as the Commission’s proposal and support the Commission’s approach.
The safety directive focuses on four areas: the designation of national safety authorities, separate from the operators, with clearly defined responsibilities; the determination of the essential elements of safety systems in relation to the operator of infrastructures and rail companies and the establishment of a mechanism for determining and adopting common safety objectives and methods – a role to be played by the rail Agency; the establishment of a common system for the issuing, content and validity of safety certificates; finally, the introduction, as in other sectors, of the principle of independent technical investigations in the event of accidents.
We now come to the third proposed directive. If we establish the network, if we guarantee a common level of safety, with clearly defined responsibilities, it is also necessary to establish an interoperable system. Hence the amendment of Directives 96/48/EC and 2001/16/EC on interoperability, whose rapporteur is Mrs Ainardi.
As well as the modifications which experience suggests we should make, it is essentially a question of guaranteeing coherence in the scope of the network in which opening up of access is carried out and the network in which the interoperability standards must be applied.
It is also a question of sending a very clear message about the need to standardise equipment, with a view to reducing costs. We cannot just remove administrative borders, but we must also remove technological borders in order to create this European rail network.
I would like to express my gratitude for the work done on an enormously technical and arduous subject, but on which the work of Parliament and the rapporteur have once again been of the highest quality.
I will finally comment on the fourth proposal, to create a European Railways Agency, on which Mr Savary has done some very considerable work.
The Agency is the cornerstone, it will complete the circle and will be the instrument which will allow us to make progress in the field of the interoperability of rail safety and therefore to guarantee the integration of the European rail network.
This Agency will provide technical support for decision making, without autonomous competences, and will provide the Commission with opinions and recommendations. The texts in question will be adopted by the Commission in accordance with a comitology procedure, as is currently the case in relation to interoperability.
Its main fields of activity will be as follows: the technical drawing up of texts planned for the directive on safety – common safety objectives and common safety methods – and for the directives on interoperability; the creation of a network of national safety and interoperability authorities; technical advice to the Commission and the national authorities on specific cases in the field of safety rules.
This Agency, which will be made up of some 100 people, will be responsible for promoting the work of the technical approximation of rail systems and will be independent, although it will work in close cooperation with experts in the sector.
I would like to thank Parliament, which, furthermore, has dealt with these reports as a global package, resisting the temptation to divide it up, which would undoubtedly have hindered our common objective of finally creating a genuine European rail area.
Mr President, to conclude, the texts proposed intend, on the one hand, to ensure that 15 incompatible national systems develop technically towards an integrated and competitive European rail area and, on the other, to speed up the opening up of the market in freight transport, so that operators can provide effective services in any part of the Union. Let us finally opt for a modern railway, worthy of the twenty-first century, which is able to compete effectively with other modes of transport.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the second stage of a prolonged process. Following the entry into force on 15 March 2001 of the three directives of the infrastructures package, which will have to be incorporated into the Member States’ legislations from 15 March 2003, we must now complete the legislative framework in order to speed up the creation of a genuine European rail area. The four proposals we are going to debate today fall within the framework of this process.
I will firstly comment on the proposed amendment to Directive 91/440/EEC, extending access rights to infrastructure and freight services within the Member States, and to speed up the opening up of the market. The rapporteur is Mr Jarzembowski, who has done a wonderful job.
Ladies and gentlemen, the White Paper on European transport policy provides an alarming description of the development of rail freight transport. Over the last twenty years, the quota corresponding to this sector – within the overall distribution of goods transport in the Union – has been reduced by half, from 15% in 1980 to 8% in 1999. Over this period, the quality of services provided to clients has not improved and in certain Member States it has worsened. This is therefore an extremely pressing issue. I do not believe we can wait until 2008 to open up international goods transport to competition throughout the European network.
We must also deal with domestic transport. That is why certain modifications are proposed to replace the timetable and methods for opening up laid down in Directive 2001/12/EC, without waiting any longer for the opening up of freight transport, both national and international, to the whole of the network. In practice, this total opening up of access rights in the field of freight would be effective by 2006, which would mean bringing forward this opening up to the whole network by two years.
Ladies and gentlemen, the second proposed directive relates, of course, to rail safety. I believe that the issue of safety in transport is something which occupies and preoccupies all of us, especially at the moment. I would also like to thank Mr Sterckx for his work.
We must guarantee that the integration of the European rail network does not mean a reduction in the maximum levels of the safety standards in the various Member States of the Union. But at the same time we must guarantee that the establishment of common rules prevents any possibility that, as a result of safety issues, the market may be harmed or there may be any discrimination in access to the networks. The creation of an internal market in rail services would not be possible without the establishment of common safety rules.
Furthermore, the opening up of the markets and the end of the monopolies considerably modify such an important factor as the system of responsibilities in the field of safety, and it is therefore necessary to establish a coherent, transparent and clear framework which prevents any doubt in this area."@en1
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