Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-491"
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"en.20081022.25.3-491"2
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"Madam President, I echo the thanks of my colleagues to Mr Stockman for what I think he described as a workable compromise in the interests of 69 European airports.
I also share the words of Mr Becsey, and indeed of my colleague Brian Simpson, about fair and transparent competition. I am happy that this report, as it is presented now, is a good deal, not just for London’s three airports of Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick, but for the airports of the rest of Europe, whether it is Mr Zīle’s Latvia, Mrs Ţicău’s Romania, or Portugal, and indeed for the Commissioners – Italian airports, and I believe there are airports in Germany as well, although not many people go to them.
But I think, also, it is a good deal for Europe’s passengers and, of course, airports are nothing without the citizens, the passengers. They are our priority, as – equally – is the environment, which I think is addressed by this report.
Mr Batten, my London colleague, in what could best be described as his hit-and-run contribution (because he has gone away), suggested that there were going to be new bodies set up and all sorts of other scaremongering. But those bodies – the Civil Aviation Authority – exist already. So I think that is a misunderstanding on his part – to be polite to him.
And, to Fiona Hall, I am not sure that Newcastle is in direct competition with London. There is a good distance between the two of them, and anybody who chooses to go into London rather than Newcastle has still got a tremendous distance to go. So I think you are not comparing like with like there.
I think that this is a good, workable compromise. I think all the original concerns that we wanted to address have been covered and, as a package, it does provide the balance – in the interests of airlines and in the interests of passengers – that we were looking for, whilst allowing the airports sufficient freedom to operate in a competitive environment.
I live in hope that, as a result of this, we might one day – you never know, colleagues, you never know – we might just get a decent service into Strasbourg. It is a long shot, but you never know – and it is worth working for."@en1
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