Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-20-Speech-2-304"
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"en.20080520.27.2-304"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to congratulate both rapporteurs on behalf of my group: firstly Mrs Ţicău, and secondly my colleague Mr Grosch. They have done very good work: they have attempted to bring together the various conflicting opinions within the Committee on Transport and Tourism.
Our group supports in principle the Commission’s proposed new regulations for conditions to be complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator and for access to the market for coach and bus services and access to the international road haulage market. However, our amendments call for further steps towards harmonisation and liberalisation. May I point out that we are still aiming towards the idea of the European internal market, which was actually supposed to be introduced in 1958. The Council has long been reluctant, but the European Court of Justice said in 1985 that we must also establish the European internal market in the transport market, so we must become a little bolder in this respect.
A brief comment on the topic of licence to pursue an occupation. The demand that the Commission develop an integrated register of infringements of road transport legislation by 2010 is very important because Member States must be able to decide on the withdrawal of licences, for example, according to unified criteria. We must consider not only licensing, but also withdrawal of that licence. If we want to eliminate the black sheep, we must decide on the matter of withdrawal of licences according to unified criteria and, in this respect, I hope that the Commission will undertake to produce a unified register by 2010.
With regard to access to the market for coach and bus services, I believe that we ought finally to make the internal market a reality, step by step. Therefore, I hope that the Commission will support us in making it no longer necessary to obtain authorisation from another Member State for cross-border regular services not extending more than 50 km beyond the border. This is nothing less than protectionism rearing its head.
With regard to access to the international road haulage market, we must stop cabotage at some point. It makes no sense in a common internal market. The point of a common internal market is that every business must be able to offer its services in every part of the Community. For environmental reasons, I would say to Mrs Lichtenberger that if I want pointless return trips to stop, then I must find a sensible way of making it possible for providers to undertake trips within other countries. Do not come to me with conditions! We are talking about doing away with cabotage in 2014. There are still six years to go. If we cannot manage to harmonise the conditions to some extent in six years, then we will never manage it, and you will still be promoting cabotage regulations in the year 3000. I am familiar with these sorts of stories from Hamburg, because we always thought that our neighbours outside of Hamburg would pay incredibly low wages. We must see to it that we create an internal market.
My most important point is the issue of the 12-day rule. Here we must simply draw clear lines. We need the 12-day rule for occasional cross-border coach services. It is not helpful when the operators and the unions now say: ‘We are about to reach an agreement.’ We must make a statutory ruling. We must pave the way for revision of driving and rest times. I am more than willing to discuss details of implementation with the unions and operators later but it is for Parliament to legislate the provisions on driving and rest times. We have clear proposals, which were supported by a majority in committee, and I would ask you to vote accordingly tomorrow."@en1
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