Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-05-Speech-3-519"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20100505.76.3-519"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
"−
Mr President, Mr López Garrido, as the Spanish Presidency has just said, last week the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, adopted a communication on clean and energy-efficient vehicles, and I had the pleasure of presenting this text as a priority issue to the members of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy themselves during my hearing last Wednesday.
The third element is research: the Commission intends to strive to ensure that European research achieves the objective of having clean and highly energy-efficient transport. It will support research in all these technological sectors, while at the same time streamlining and simplifying the procedures for obtaining European subsidies.
I shall conclude by emphasising the impact that this strategy will have; it goes far beyond the car industry. I share the Spanish Presidency’s view: we are here to examine a strategy, that is, the one contained in the Europe 2020 document proposed by the Commission and approved by the Council, which places industrial and enterprise policy at the heart of the strategy for emerging from the crisis and for creating prosperity and promoting development in our society in the years to come. The measures taken on behalf of the car industry, to ensure that it can definitely innovate but that it can also compete on the international market, are part of this strategy to safeguard industry but also all those small and medium-sized enterprises that revolve around major European industry, which actually represents one of the pillars of major industry.
Therefore, I believe that this work that we are doing to open up future prospects for the car industry is a commendable initiative, and I was delighted to hear the words of the Spanish Presidency, which welcomed the communication by the Commission. The Commission wants, together with Parliament and the Council, to examine a strategy that will enable our European industry, our European entrepreneurial system, to evolve, because, as the Treaty of Lisbon states and as we are all convinced, a strong market is the best vehicle for creating sound social policy.
Without business and without industry we cannot conceive of protecting jobs, or of safeguarding the right to work of our fellow citizens.
The communication consists of two main pillars: a first part on the improvement of traditional combustion engines, and a second part aimed at establishing a road map for promoting and facilitating the widespread use of advanced technologies in relation to ultra-low-carbon vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, biofuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles and 100% electric vehicles. Electric cars are, precisely, the subject of this evening’s debate and of the resolution on which this Parliament is preparing to vote tomorrow.
Anyone who has paid close attention to the developments affecting the car industry will agree with me that an unprecedented consensus has been reached in favour of electric vehicles. Decisive moments have been the meeting of the Council of Ministers in San Sebastián, under the Spanish Presidency, the announcements of national programmes for electric mobility and the motor shows, not only in Europe, but also in Detroit and Beijing.
We now know that European car manufacturers will launch the first fully electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrid vehicles onto the market in 2011, while continuing at the same time to produce more up-to-date, highly energy-efficient conventional vehicles. More important still is the fact that these clean cars are not only an object of curiosity in the showrooms of dealerships, but they are also eagerly awaited by European consumers, who have clearly indicated their preference for smaller and more environmentally friendly vehicles.
I wish to briefly illustrate in this House the content of the Commission’s strategy: the strategy includes more than 40 concrete measures, and I would like to take this opportunity to illustrate to you the three that have been identified by the interested parties as the main priorities that the Commission must address, namely standardisation, financial incentives and research.
Standardising electric vehicles is fundamentally important for the purposes of ensuring that European citizens can recharge their vehicles when they cross borders; so-called interoperability is an essential requirement if consumers are to wholeheartedly embrace new technology and, hence, the uptake of electric vehicles on the mass market is to be guaranteed.
That is why it is anticipated in the communication that the Commission will work with the European standardisation bodies, on the basis of the consolidated standardisation process, to adopt a single solution for interoperability, to address safety risks and to consider a smart charging system for electric vehicle chargers. The standard must incorporate the existing technical solutions and, of course, guarantee safety and an affordable price for consumers.
I am convinced that we must harness the current momentum in order to opt for a genuine single European solution, based on our internal market principles. If we let slip this opportunity, we could find ourselves in a fragmented market for many years; not only would this be negative for consumers and European businesses, it would also be unwise given the numerous competing international initiatives.
As regards financial incentives, on the other hand, ladies and gentlemen, they have already been introduced by various Member States. In some cases the incentives relate explicitly to electric vehicles, while in other cases they are linked to low CO
emissions. The Commission does not intend, of course, to force the Member States to offer incentives, but it does wish to coordinate the exchange of information and to propose a set of guidelines on this subject in order to prevent, precisely, fragmentation of the market."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
"2"1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples