Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-30-Speech-4-016"
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"en.20001130.1.4-016"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, we have some good reports here. We must send out a clear signal to unsafe flag states, to shipowners, including those from the EU who use these flag states, to shippers who can then get cheaper prices, and to classification societies that are not doing their job properly. Safety comes at a price. We should have the courage to say so sometimes.
I would just like to take a minute to go into the report by Mr Watts. If a flag state defaults, then the port state must be given increased responsibility. That is a sound principle and we must stick to it. A black box, a blacklist: we are in complete agreement with all these things, but there are still a few points I would like to bring to your attention.
Countries that impose stricter controls run the risk of being saddled with shipwrecks in their ports, and environmental risks, and sometimes with human tragedies, when crews are left to their fate. These are all things we must take into consideration, and we must ensure that the port is not disadvantaged by well-intentioned measures.
Commissioner, we have a directive for end-of-life vehicles. Ought we not to have one for end-of-life ships too, because I would not be at all surprised if there were a few environmental risks there too, which we should take a close look at sometime?
Secondly, we must invest in manpower and in crews. Hence we will support a number of amendments tabled by Mr Vachetta. We also need to invest in inspectors, because even if there are too few of them, we at least need to make sure we have skilled workers at the helm, so to speak.
At the end of the day, we must also be realistic about our limitations as legislators. We have rules and they are not being implemented satisfactorily. A number of speakers have already made the same point. Take the
a double-hull ship. It was built in 1989 and sailed under an Italian flag. It has been inspected three times in the last three years. So, there is more to safety than rules. Everyone who works in the sector bears a heavy responsibility. Those who are not prepared to take on this responsibility must stay out of our waters and our ports."@en1
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