Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-27-Speech-4-013"
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"en.20060427.2.4-013"2
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".
Madam President, I would like to express my warmest thanks to Parliament and most of all to its rapporteur Mr Titley for his report – and not only for his report but also for the energy with which he is pushing forward this very important facility for citizens.
It is very encouraging to see that Parliament recognises eCall as one of the priorities of the e-safety initiative, if not the key priority, and the first building block for the Intelligent Car Initiative which I launched last February. I would also like to thank Parliament because it gives the Commission continuous support in the efforts to get the Member States on board. As the rapporteur said: the difficult part of the project is getting them to sign the Memorandum of Understanding. I really hope that your report will give a positive signal to the Member States so that we can have them all on board.
I am pleased also to note that Parliament shares our views on the emergency number 112 and calls on Member States to make progress in the use of this number. You know that the Commission has already taken steps, by organising a high-level conference on 112 in October last year and by setting up an expert group on emergency communication.
Parliament would like to synchronise the introduction of eCall with the Galileo timetable. I agree that Galileo will offer better positioning performances once it is operational. However, our target is to roll out eCall as soon as possible, and therefore I encourage the industry to develop a solution based on currently available technologies, such as GPS.
I agree with Parliament that the cost-benefit analysis is critical, especially in making a convincing business case for eCall and I would like to underline the figures that your rapporteur has just quoted. I think this cost-benefit analysis shows that not only can you save lives, you can also save a good deal of money. Some Member States like Finland have started their own analysis, which I welcome, and the Commission has started a very comprehensive study called eImpact.
The Commission believes that the industry can produce in-vehicle systems that fulfil the performance criteria with affordable prices when produced in large volumes, so it is a question of getting started and then introducing the system in all cars. We in the Commission do not intend to intervene with the industry on this issue, but we are encouraging equipment manufacturers to work with telecommunication equipment suppliers and mobile network operators in the design of the in-vehicle systems, which require reliability, robustness and functionality.
I welcome Parliament’s call to the stakeholders to look into the use of incentives. Consumer studies indicate that, although they value safety very highly, consumers may not be willing to pay extra for safety features in cars. With the support of Parliament we will continue to pursue two lines of discussion on the issue of incentives, namely the financial incentives with the Member States and the possible reduction of insurance premiums with the insurance industry.
Regarding the issue of getting eCall to users in rural and isolated areas, I would like to point out that eCall is for all, including the more affordable car models. It is not a luxury car item but for all citizens and for all cars. How quickly its use will spread will of course depend on many things, for example, whether or not we manage to implement the incentive schemes. I believe that here there will be an after-market solution which will speed up the take-up of eCall.
I can assure you that eCall is very high on the Commission’s priority list and I am pleased that Parliament has helped us by making it one of its priorities. We will therefore continue our common effort to commit Member States to eCall."@en1
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