Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-05-Speech-1-135"
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"en.20050905.21.1-135"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I shall only add a couple of points to what Mrs De Veyrac has said. She gave a brilliant presentation of her report in committee, and I hope we shall adopt it as soon as possible.
Before this August, we were probably all satisfied with the air safety situation throughout the world and with the EU’s evident ability to be in the forefront in this area. That is due to the fact that its rules are stricter than those imposed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) internationally; the fact that standardisation and aircraft control issues are now entrusted entirely to the European Aviation Safety Agency; and the prospect that we shall also be dealing with air freight organisations and crews in the fairly near future.
The air accidents in August 2005, however, require us to act with greater urgency and greater ambition. It is a pressing need to which we must not fail to respond, since the number of victims is constantly rising: the serious accident that has happened today in Indonesia means that this tragic August is not yet over.
In view of all that, I believe that we have to recognise that the area of air safety is, amongst others, an absolute priority. It is a goal that has to be pursued without too much concern for national competences – which are now meaningless – and we must leave behind the rather slow progress that has been made so far in defining objectives and procedures, which equally does not make sense.
We are in a situation in which air traffic is growing rapidly and people respond with whatever is available, using any kind of aircraft, but the dangers are becoming increasingly evident. There is much to do and we have to act fast. If, in this debate on its future, there is one area of European Union competence that quite clearly lies at Community level, I would say that it is safety. We have to take this road, so that even the Member States understand that the sooner they transfer their powers to the European Union in this field, the better it will be for everybody and the more effectively action can be taken.
Right now, what can we do? We can implement the Commission’s specific proposal to inform passengers of the details of the aircraft actually being used, by providing them with additional information.
Ultimately, if with this report we succeed in guaranteeing that everybody has the same control criteria, the same safety standards, and the same blacklist of non-compliers applying throughout the EU, with objective, transparent criteria for adding and removing names from the list, then we shall have transformed something that was originally a means of helping consumers into a real instrument for taking action in the field of safety. We are aware that it is not enough: at the same time, the Commission must set out the overall strategy that it intends to pursue. I am convinced that Parliament – and the Council too, I hope – will agree to follow it so that as soon as possible we can ensure that we meet the expectations of Europe’s citizens."@en1
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