Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-18-Speech-2-169"
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"en.20031118.6.2-169"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the points of view in this dossier are well known. This week, the European ship has to decide which port to enter. To liberalise or not to liberalise, that is not the question as far as I am concerned. What is important is how we liberalise and whether we do it humanely.
The Conciliation Committee came to an agreement on this, and I admit that some of the sharp edges on which people can get hurt in a liberalisation process have been filed off, including by limiting self-handling to seafaring personnel. It is just unfortunate that it was not just that little bit more, then I, too, could have reconciled myself with the text.
As has already been said repeatedly by fellow Members, there was indeed a majority in Parliament in favour of imposing compulsory authorisations for service providers and self-handling. The word was ‘must’. Unfortunately, Parliament’s lead was not taken, and the agreement did not move on from ‘may’.
If the Member States diverge in the way they use the possibilities they are given, there is of course a risk of distortion of competition. The fear of distortion of competition in itself can also lead to lax regulation. We do not like that idea, and therefore I do not agree with this draft text.
We know that St Nicholas is not due until December, but I sincerely hope that we can prevent the dockers from being left holding the baby, or in this case Black Peter, as early as this week. I have sympathy for those who earn their living in the ports. I shall therefore be voting against the draft. Whatever the result of the vote, I should like to address the Belgian dockers with the following request: do not in any event rest on your laurels, as not even the rejection of the text will mean that your problems are at an end. You know that a discussion has been underway for some time on the question as to whether the Belgian ports act – known as the ‘Major law’ – is in accordance with the treaty rules on the free movement of services. I strongly advise you good people to take control in this sphere in good time, before others have to set to work on it."@en1
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