Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-10-Speech-1-134"
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"en.20080310.19.1-134"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I have listened carefully to your speeches. As you have all underlined, the challenge with our air security policy is to find a reasonable balance between the need to protect passengers against terrorist activity and, of course, the operational aspects at airports in order to avoid over-complicated checking procedures. The Commission proposal was aimed at significantly improving the chances of striking a reasonable balance. As I said before, the adoption of this regulation will enable us to establish more modern and flexible rules, using new checking technologies, to introduce the one-stop security concept for flights from non-member countries, with a high standard of security, to abolish certain duplicated requirements, to codify the participation of stakeholders in decision-making on the implementing measures and, of course, to involve the European Parliament more in the process of decision-making on the implementing rules. I personally undertake to launch initiatives in all areas of security funding in order to improve the current situation, ensure greater transparency and make the financial commitment of the Member States more visible.
So, as I said, I shall reply to some of your comments, although I am not claiming that I will answer them all.
The general rule the Commission will follow in future is to publicise all applications of the regulation, unless it is shown that awareness of the regulation might aid terrorists. That is very different from the present situation, in which the default rule is not to publish anything. That point is very important, because it means that Parliament can be fully informed.
So I shall reply to a few points. In answer to Mr Ó Neachtain, for me the duty-free issue is still important. We have drawn up a regulation that allows for derogations. Through negotiation with Singapore, we have managed to introduce this rule for all dealings with Singapore, and we are now continuing with a number of non-member countries in preparation for further derogations. Obviously, though, these non-member countries have to cooperate much more actively with us and we are letting them know of our interest in that. The Americans and Canadians are working with us, but it is absolutely vital – and, believe me, this is something I personally am very concerned about – for us to sign many more agreements with non-member countries if we are to make any progress on the duty-free issue.
Mr Kohlíček and Mrs Ayala Sender mentioned pilots and crew. We are working with the pilots. Consultation is under way, but I cannot prejudge its outcome. What is true is that we are paying close attention to the problems to which we need to find the right solutions.
It is true that, as has rightly been said, we need a very coherent approach at European level. I am obviously keeping a close watch myself on how the regulations are applied and it is true that, as Mr Kirkhope pointed out just now, we clearly have to harmonise the rules and procedures for their implementation as well. We also have to guard against some Member States taking initiatives that are more or less improvised and unilateral. It is not easy; we know the battle for funding of security measures and more transparent and balanced financing will be hard. Mr Costa has experience of that. I should also like to express my thanks to Mrs Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, who chaired the Parliament delegation and was a great help to us during the long and very difficult meetings.
Finally I should like to say something to Mr Costa, because his report and his work as rapporteur gave us a real feeling that Parliament was genuinely seeking the common good of Europe, the welfare of passengers, and also, of course, a system of protection that is effective but at the same time flexible enough to allow for changes. As I said earlier, we are keeping a close eye on the new technologies that will, I hope, enable us to simplify these procedures. The detection of explosives in liquids seems now to be well on the way. I hope we shall be able to make use of those technologies. They will obviously be welcome.
I thank you, Madam President, and I thank Parliament in particular for the high standard of this debate and all the contributions it has made in the course of the debate."@en1
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