Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-22-Speech-2-424"
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"en.20070522.32.2-424"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the European context it is difficult to imagine strong economic growth that creates jobs and wealth without an efficient, modern transport network.
Personally, I am strongly convinced that the issue of comitology must be investigated further and analysed with a view to avoiding future stalemates. This compromise represents an individual isolated case dictated by the need to speed up the procedure with a view to avoiding a blockage in the appropriation of Community funds for the TENs.
In the light of this clarification, Mr President, I would like to ask all Members present in the Chamber to vote against the amendments tabled. Since agreement has been reached on the text in its entirety, voting in favour of these amendments would mean reneging on this agreement, reopening negotiations with the Council once again and nullifying all the efforts made during the negotiations, which were started with the precise intention of rapidly unblocking the funds earmarked for the TENs.
I would like to conclude by thanking all my colleagues, and most of all the shadow rapporteurs from the other groups who contributed to the drafting of the report.
The trans-European transport network plays a crucial role in allowing the free movement of persons and goods within the territory of the European Union and is one of the decisive factors in achieving the European Union’s economic development objectives in relation to employment that were identified in the Lisbon Agenda. This is all the more applicable in a Europe that, with enlargement, has gone further in two directions: towards central and eastern Europe and southwards.
For this reason, with the TENs the European Union is including among its goals the elimination of bottlenecks in the rail network and the upgrading of priority routes, with a view to absorbing new traffic flows generated by enlargement, particularly in border areas, and improving access for the outlying regions. In this way, the TENs can act as a reference point for Community legislation that is designed to promote economic and social development and territorial cohesion for the countries of the Union.
As we all know, funding of the TENs has suffered a significant reduction in comparison with initial forecasts: the 2007-2013 programming set aside EUR 8 billion in funds for the TENs, which is a sharp cut compared with the EUR 20 billion initially requested by the Commission, although it is double the funds made available in the 2000-2006 period.
We have accepted this cutback and have pressed on with the resources that have been made available to us, and throughout the lengthy negotiations have pursued four basic objectives: 1) simplification, to speed up the procedural process; 2) conditionality, to prioritise modes of transport with a lower environmental impact; 3) selectivity and concentration, to promote the concentration of resources on projects with high Community added value; and 4) proportionality, with a view to differentiating the maximum amount of Community resources that may be granted in line with the type of project to be financed.
I have mentioned just some of the objectives reached by us with the aim of accurately identifying the financial commitments: the increase of the cofinancing rates to 20% for priority projects and to 30% for the cross-border sector. Thus we have a clear increase in Community financial aid for projects aiming to eliminate bottlenecks in the networks of the least-favoured regions, as, moreover, is already the Commission’s intention with regard to the process of revising the TENs.
I will also mention the use of up to 85% of budget resources for priority projects, a clearer definition of bottlenecks, in order to allow natural barriers to be overcome, and a new structure for the European Rail Management Traffic System, which can now benefit from 50% cofinancing rates. There are also innovative new parameters for the ‘loan guarantee instruments’ issued by the European Investment Bank and new measures that make it possible to supply risk capital participation, with the possibility of involvement by the private investment sector too.
Finally, I would like to clarify the issue of comitology, by setting out precisely the content of the compromise achieved: the procedure agreed on follows Article 5 and not Article 5a, which from one point of view would have been the best choice for Parliament, but from another would have caused a further postponement of work, preventing the appropriation of Community funds during 2007, with extremely serious consequences for the implementation of the programme. Even though Article 5 applies, there are plans for Parliament to be closely involved. All the proposals will be sent at the same time to both the regulatory committee and Parliament, thus allowing Parliament to be able to carry out its own assessments well in advance, before the proposals are adopted. This fully satisfies the need to keep both the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Transport and Tourism constantly informed.
In addition, Commissioner Barrot, in his letter of last November, guaranteed that he would personally make sure that the chairmen of the two parliamentary committees involved were kept informed of all changes. The letter was inserted in the final text of the regulation, guaranteeing the Commission’s commitment to Parliament."@en1
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