Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-23-Speech-2-276"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080923.34.2-276"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
". −
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow you will vote on the third maritime safety package. As you know, the maritime economy provides jobs for approximately 3 million people, making it a key sector for the European Union.
There were seven legislative proposals in the package sent through by the Commission in early 2006. They aimed to introduce measures for preventing accidents at sea and to establish measures to be taken following accidents – that is, to analyse the causes and compensate any victims. The priority of the package is ensuring the safety and quality of shipping, while respecting the environment, as well as improving the competitiveness of the European maritime sector.
The Council, Parliament and the Commission all support the objective of promoting maritime safety. At the Copenhagen European Council in 2002, the Council welcomed efforts to improve maritime safety and recalled the European Union’s determination to ‘take all necessary measures to avoid a repetition of similar catastrophes’ to the
accident. The Council can also have no qualms about accepting many of the demands expressed by Parliament in its resolution of 27 April 2004. However, there are still some differences over the third maritime package, and these will require further consultation between the parties.
Since the package was presented by the Commission, through the work of several presidencies – most recently the Slovenian Presidency – the Council has adopted six Common Positions on the following proposals: investigation of accidents, classification societies, port state control, traffic monitoring, and the Athens Convention, all while taking account of European Parliament opinions such as those adopted in April last year.
Since the start of its term of office, the French Presidency has been making a major effort to reach agreement in Parliament at Second Reading on these six texts, for which the Common Positions were communicated by the Council in June 2008. During informal contacts with the rapporteurs during the summer months by the President of Coreper, real progress was made on each dossier, the purpose of which was to reach rapid agreement on these texts. In a recent letter, Mr Costa, you described this as ‘substantial progress’.
Furthermore, as you know, in accordance with the commitments I made last April, the Presidency has energetically and enthusiastically revived discussions in the Council on the last two texts on civil liability and flag state obligations. This revival was very necessary for maritime safety and, Commissioner, also came in response to constant requests from your Commission. You know this item was put on the agenda by the Presidency at the informal meeting in La Rochelle, to which I had invited the European Parliament representatives Mr Costa and Mr Savary, who were kind enough to attend. You know we are currently continuing with the technical aspects of the work so the Transport Council can look at it at its next meeting, planned for 9 October.
Let me be frank with you: in view of the momentum this has triggered, I would have hoped we might avoid going to conciliation. Nevertheless, here we are. We must now make sure we do not lose the momentum, and above all we must not give the impression that all this progress and effort has been in vain, because this would send a poor message to the public. For this reason, in parallel with the work going on in the Council on the last two texts, the Presidency is still happy to maintain informal contact with each of the rapporteurs on the first six texts in order to reach agreement on the content.
I particularly wanted to share this analysis with you, and I will tell the Council about it at its meeting on 9 October, when we will be looking at the last two texts. The Council will decide what its position is regarding conciliation on the first six texts.
Mr President, I really hope that Parliament, the Council and the Commission can find a way forward for close cooperation on these dossiers. I think we have very nearly reached a final agreement, something we are all longing for."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples