Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-08-Speech-3-131"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20031008.12.3-131"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am sure you all remember the terrible fires that occurred in French, Italian, Austrian and Swiss road tunnels in 1999 and 2001. In order to prevent any repetition of these disasters, or at least to ensure that if they do occur the consequences are not so tragic, at the beginning of the year the Commission submitted a proposal for a directive seeking to establish minimum safety requirements for tunnels. The Commission also received encouragement for its approach through several resolutions adopted by your Parliament, specifically following the fire in the Gothard tunnel in October 2001.
The Commission proposal targets all road tunnels over 500 metres long that form part of the trans-European network, totalling around 500 tunnels. Tunnels in the trans-European network are actually used by drivers of all nationalities and it appears that the consequences of fires can be considerably diminished if persons finding themselves in such situations have access to standard safety equipment and to homogenous information on the best attitude to adopt in order to protect themselves.
The proposal contains both technical and organisational requirements. Without listing all the measures, the most important ones can be summarised as follows: extremely long tunnels must have fully working equipment, in particular emergency exits and improved ventilation systems. Automatic fire detectors must be capable of informing tunnel users of any potential danger. The Commission also proposes that emergency signals with a uniform safety standard should be installed and should be easy to understand for all users. We believe that all the proposed technical measures are necessary. Some people have been surprised at the highly technical nature of the proposal but if you compare the measures envisaged for the technical regulations set by international courts, or at national level, you will realise that these are necessary in order to cover the essential aspects.
At the organisational level, roles and responsibilities will from now on be clearly divided between the main actors involved, who are: the administrative authority, the tunnel user and the person or body responsible for safety. These measures will apply to new tunnels, and also to existing tunnels, which will have to be brought up to standard in line with a timetable spread over ten to fifteen years. Member States that have more than the Community average number of tunnels in their territory will have a longer deadline for bringing their older tunnels into line with the directive. The task facing the engineers responsible for the safety of these tunnels in the Member States is a long one and the directive must be adopted as soon as possible. As a result of the meetings that we have already held with some of you, I know that we can count on you to reach rapid agreement with the Council on this dossier."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples