Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-12-Speech-1-179"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060612.21.1-179"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Commissioner Verheugen, the presentation in March this year of the Commission communication ‘A renewed EU tourism policy: towards a stronger partnership for European tourism’ could – and should – have been an opportunity to discuss the Community institutions’ next steps with a view to strengthening the tourist industry in Europe. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Commissioner, I have to tell you yet again that we have been disappointed. The Commission communication is not ambitious. It is more of an analysis document, which has its positive points, I grant you, but there is no great creativity, daring or vision in it. It is a document that does not even tie in with the Green Paper on an EU maritime policy, which has since been published, in which the tourism potential of the sea and the coastal countries is abundantly emphasised.
To conclude, Commissioner, let me reformulate the question that prompted this debate. In simpler terms, I am asking what new ideas, significant proposals and useful suggestions the Commission has for the tourist industry or, in other words, how does the Commission propose to help make European tourism more dynamic?
In the end, Commissioner, the questions I am asking here are basically different ways of expressing one and the same concern: the need to make full use of this industry’s enormous economic potential for the sake of growth and employment in the European Union.
The world today is no longer the one we were living in 15 or 20 years ago, when a rapidly developing, vigorous economy was distributing wealth among Europe’s citizens. In today’s world, the global economy presents us with new difficulties, and yet also with new attractions. There is a different reality demanding different responses. Our development model is out of date and will be ineffective if we do not remedy it.
Europe needs, then, to find development opportunities where it can be competitive and sustainable, where it has comparative advantages with economic potential. That is the case of tourism.
We certainly cannot compete with exotic destinations, but we have history, heritage and an unparalleled, enormously varied potential for attracting visitors.
We are all aware that the European tourist industry is one of the sectors that can best react to the challenges set by the global economy. Hard to relocate and readily adaptable, it is able to respond to demands for quality and environmental protection; it is in a position to meet the requirement of better training; it can overcome the problem of seasonality if it can adapt to new target groups; and it has the potential for growth.
When the Commission presents a new communication on the subject, therefore, it could be expected to say something new and to respond to the challenges that this Parliament threw down in its resolution on the future of sustainable tourism in Europe, which was adopted in September 2005. In contrast, the Commission has produced an unimaginative document in which it very rarely takes up the initiatives put forward by Parliament. That is not good enough, Commissioner. The proposals to adopt specific measures aiming at the sustainable development of the tourist industry and at making good economic use of it have elicited no response from the Commission, or only an inadequate one.
Let us look at the evidence: why has the Commission not followed up on our proposals to address the problem of seasonality, specifically by strengthening the mechanisms to develop senior tourism in the low season? Is it because it does not agree? Is it because it considers it pointless? Or do schemes like Spain’s Inserso, for instance, not reap the benefits that all economic operators find in it?
Another example: the European Capitals of Culture are a successful model in promoting the cultural heritage of host cities and creating a greater sense of identity among European citizens. Well, then, what the Commission says about adapting this concept to the tourism advocated by this Parliament and by a number of economic operators is, and I quote, that it ‘will explore the opportunity to promote awareness of such good practices, possibly through a ‘European destinations of excellence award’. ‘Explore the opportunity to promote awareness’? As far as initiative and dynamism go, we have to recognise that that is not nearly good enough. The same could be said in relation to Parliament’s request to be involved in preparing Agenda 21 in the area of sustainable European tourism, or the need to set up mechanisms to protect European tourists caught up in crisis or disaster situations abroad. Once again, the Commission’s response has been silence.
In a market economy, public institutions are not expected to plan the economy, organise investment or manage economic structures. In the European Union, it is not the Commission’s task to do what the Member States and private businesses do better. Tourism is a subsidiarity field
. Even so, one would expect greater vision, greater political willingness, and the ability to make decisions and, above all, to send out clear signals to private economic operators and the Member States themselves. That was the expectation that we had for this Commission communication on tourism."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples