Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-17-Speech-3-161"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20070117.9.3-161"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, ladies and gentlemen, until now, unrestricted travel through Europe, from Lisbon to Tallinn, from London to Athens, from Paris to Warsaw, has been possible only by road or air. The rail network, on the other hand, resembles a patchwork quilt with 27 patches, and so the railways are being left behind.
The national networks should be opened up. At the same time, the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance wants to be sure that social and environmental interests are also safeguarded. In addition, we must learn from the mistakes made in the United Kingdom and Estonia, for example, where it was not only the networks that were opened up: the infrastructure was privatised, too. That was a disaster. For this reason, and also based on our experience of the monopoly structures of European electricity companies, we say that an essential requirement should be that the infrastructure remain in the public sector.
Europe cannot be content with the present situation on the railways – and customers certainly cannot. An international European licence for train drivers is nothing short of exotic. Nor is it acceptable that I am promoting the use of French trains on the German network whilst France is closing its network to other providers. Thanks to the European licence for train drivers, it will no longer be necessary to change drivers at the border between Member States.
Passengers’ rights should be strengthened in the passenger rail services of all EU Member States, with the possibility of legally enforceable claims for compensation in the event of delays. All trains – including high-speed trains such as the French TGV and the German ICE – should have a multi-purpose compartment to enable the carriage of sports equipment and bicycles on board. Comprehensive information on European rail services and the option of buying tickets to anywhere in Europe should be the rule rather than the exception. Access is to be guaranteed for people with reduced mobility. National railway networks should be opened up for long-distance passenger transport, too, by 2017 at the latest – or 2022 in the case of the new Member States. We shall be making our consent to this conditional upon the following, however: there must be no social dumping or destructive competition.
We know that the opening-up of the networks has meant a substantial increase in rail freight transport, but we also know that those Member States which have shut themselves off have recorded a decrease. There are only five approved railway undertakings in France, and the tonne-kilometres transported in that country fell by 28% between 1999 and 2005. There are more than 700 approved railway undertakings in Germany, and freight transport there increased by 25% in the same period, whilst the figure for the Netherlands was even upwards of 40%. These are real success stories. We want to replicate these positive results in passenger transport, and that is why we want to see networks opened up for European passenger transport, too.
I should like to thank the rapporteurs and my colleagues for their cooperation."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples