Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-046"
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"en.20031021.2.2-046"2
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"Madam President, the debate is very much centred on the notion of Europe being a continent. So far, we have ignored the reality that there are some parts of Europe that are not connected by a land bridge or indeed rail tunnel.
I come from one of those islands, the island of Ireland that does not have a tunnel connecting the rest of Europe, or indeed a land bridge. Much of the debate, therefore, about opening up rail links and so forth to some extent goes over our heads. Having said that, we have a population of 4 million people, and we export 90% of our production. We need good internal links between our major urban centres, and we need good links to our major ports so that our goods can be shipped out effectively and efficiently.
For that reason, I am quite keen on the idea the Commission recently mentioned – and perhaps the Commissioner might listen to what I have to say – in relation to 'motorways of the sea'. This is quite interesting to those of us who live on the island of Ireland in terms of having our goods transported and sold.
The other point I want to make is that rail internally, both on the continent of Europe and in Ireland, is important as a public service. It is not going to be possible to ensure the free and fast flow of goods and people around the continent, or indeed on the island of Ireland, unless we have fast, efficient, safe and comfortable rail services, not only to and from our major urban centres, but also to provide cohesion in those parts of our continent whether there is underdevelopment.
The major financiers who would be interested in cherrypicking the key commuter belt rail services are not interested in providing rail services in the western corridor of the island of Ireland, for instance. But that is essential if we are going to provide any kind of proper spatial development to ensure that the population does not drift entirely to the eastern coast.
These are aspects that need to be addressed. This is why I am quite keen on the idea of the European Rail Agency proposed in the Savary report, because there are a lot of other aspects in this rail debate which need to be addressed, both in terms of the commercial life of Europe, but also its spatial development and the development of cohesion. That, after all, is an objective of the Lisbon process."@en1
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