Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-22-Speech-3-479"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20090422.60.3-479"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"−
Mr President, Commissioner, thank you. It is a somewhat unprecedented exercise in style that the European Parliament is carrying out on this report since, I would remind you, the issue of urban mobility was first raised by the transport commissioner, Jacques Barrot, over two years ago now, and it resulted in a Green Paper by the European Commission, which submitted its conclusions to us in spring 2007. The latter were addressed in a report – an own-initiative report – by our Parliament, drafted by my fellow Member, Mr Rack, who is here in the Chamber.
I should like to thank all of the coordinators, since we have worked in an unprecedented manner, we have worked very much upstream, and the report that has been submitted has achieved very broad support within the Committee on Transport and Tourism.
I should like to say that this is a report that is based on the principle of subsidiarity. It is out of the question – yes, I have gone on for too long, but I am sure you will forgive your rapporteur, Mr President – for Europe to think about taking any urban transport-related decisions whatsoever on behalf of local authorities.
I myself am a local elected representative, and I am very committed to the freedom of administration of local authorities, as the campaigns that I have led in this House with, in particular, Mr Piecyk, my colleague from the Committee on Transport and Tourism, have shown. What I do believe, however, is that Europe can incentivise, can improve the exchange of information and best practices, and that is the essence of our proposals, which will be outlined shortly.
The European institutional system stipulates that a Green Paper must be followed by a White Paper, and, in the case in point, it was European Commission proposals for action plans on urban mobility that were on the table.
I must thank Mr Tajani, who is here, for advising me in December that it would not be politically possible for the European Commission to submit a proposal there and then. It is understandable: for reasons of their own, a number of States have reservations about this now that the European elections are approaching, but Parliament sought to take up the gauntlet.
I should also like to pay tribute to my fellow Members present here today, from all the political groups – especially the coordinators – and to the Committee on Regional Development, for having supported my proposal, which was to build on the advantage that we had and to say that, since the Commission could no longer take the initiative, we should do.
What we are going to propose is somewhat unprecedented. I do not know whether a precedent has been set, here in this House. We are going to propose to the Commission the action plan that it should have proposed to us.
Naturally, no legal openings are to be expected from an own-initiative report such as this. By proposing a very practical action plan, with extremely precise proposals, Parliament, not being the executive, and not being the government of the European Union – that is the Commission’s role – can hope for nothing other than to be heard.
I must say in passing that, over the last few months, we have obtained the overwhelming support of all the organisations that take an interest in these matters. They include, in particular – I should like to make the point here for the benefit of the few remaining Members who have some reservations about this initiative – local authorities and all the organisations that represent local authorities, including in countries which, today, plead subsidiarity as a way of explaining to us that this action plan is out of the question.
I therefore believe that local authorities have recognised that urban mobility is likely to be one of the major challenges of the 21st century. Why? Because, today, 60% of Europeans live in the urban community. In 2020, this figure will rise to 80%, and we, the European Union, have a legal basis that makes us jointly responsible, with the Member States and local authorities, for transport policy.
Would we, as Europeans, give up on having the slightest idea or the slightest initiative in areas in which transport will present the most complicated and, no doubt, the most fundamental problems in the years to come? We think not, and that is why the European Parliament did not want us to keep quiet, did not want us to keep quiet on urban mobility. Rather, in some ways it wanted us to use this initiative to call on the Commission to take up this matter again as a priority for the next mandate."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples