Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-04-24-Speech-2-279"
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"en.20070424.46.2-279"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, it happens that I myself was rapporteur for the first part of this maritime package during the last part-session, in March, since we decided to deliberate on the Vincenzi report on flag States and on my report on civil liability.
I believe that it is very important to reaffirm today that this is indeed a comprehensive package and to send out a message to the Council that it should not act like the Horiaces and the Curiaces. We want to remain very cohesive, and I hope that we shall manage to do so, because this package is made up of a set of extremely important and particularly exemplary texts.
Just the once will not hurt: we are going to deliberate on maritime safety texts cold, that is to say, without having the pressure of disastrous events. I was here, in this Chamber, during the time of the two previous disasters, with the ‘Erika’ and the ‘Prestige’. I was also here for what were, at times, hypocritical questions from the Member States pointing out Europe’s shortcomings: well, what is Europe doing, then? It is Europe’s fault that there is such a lack of foresight, it is Europe’s fault that ships are allowed to sail in such a state, and it is Europe’s fault that there are no guidelines on how to compensate for the ecological disasters that have resulted from this. Well, it will not be the fault of Europe, but of the Member States, that we are getting to the end of the exercise to which we are summoned today. One can see, incidentally, from the first two packages, that, when the Member States are told to ‘go for it’ on legislative issues, well, they are far less enthusiastic and it takes far longer for the texts to be applied.
We therefore have here a legislative package of seven particularly consistent texts, in a European maritime environment that is undoubtedly – it must be said – one of the most fragile and most hazardous in the world. We have a complicated geography and risk areas: the Pas-de-Calais – the increase in traffic in the Pas-de-Calais has caused and continues to cause major accidents – the Baltic and the Oresund, and the Bosporus, without forgetting Gibraltar. Moreover, we are one of the world’s greatest maritime powers, probably the greatest, despite the fact that China is in the process of overtaking us. It is therefore absolutely vital for us to have a powerful body of law, allowing us to protect Europe and to send out a signal to everyone that we have safety requirements and that those requirements are first and foremost preventive.
None of us wants to make charterers pay and to force them to give back ill-gotten gains, but we do want charterers, together with all those operating in the maritime transport sector, to be far more careful and to know that pressure is going to be put on them by insurance companies and by all the partners, so that they are extremely rigorous and take the fewest possible risks. There will always be accidents, but I believe that we will pride ourselves on having done all that we can, whilst remaining within the framework of the international law of the International Maritime Organisation, to create an exemplary European area of maritime law."@en1
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