Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-04-Speech-3-286"
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".
Mr President, I agree with what a lot of speakers have said, in particular Mrs Harms. The short-term measures that we are now putting in place must in no way run counter to our long-term goals. That is the bottom line.
As you have been so nice, I too will now be nice and say something that will definitely please you and that I said here back in 2006, namely that the future of the European motor industry will be a green one or this industry will not have a future in Europe. Let me make that quite clear. People can argue about whether the choice of models produced by European manufacturers, especially the German manufacturers, was responsible for the crisis we are now in. I do not know. There have been environmentally-friendly cars in the past, and low-consumption models too – think of Mercedes’ Smart car, which led to billions in losses for the company. It is not quite as black and white as you might think, therefore. From an environmental point of view, the choice of models was clearly wrong and the fact that the changeover is being made now, in a crisis, does not make it easier, but that does not change the fact that this changeover is necessary and needs to take place quickly. On this point, then, we are in complete agreement.
A tariff barrier against cars from the US, Mr Louis, is definitively not something that we will be introducing. If there is one thing we will not be doing, this is it. American cars play no real role in the European market, whereas European cars play a large role in the US market. If there is a voice here in the European Parliament calling for us to protect our market against American cars, I fear that there will be a voice in the US Congress in Washington saying that they should protect their market from European cars. Our position would not look too good in such a situation. I would ask you in all seriousness not to pursue this idea any further.
I can only lend my complete support to what Mr Groote had to say about vehicle tax. I also thought that the pointed observations made specifically on this topic were sound. The reshaping of vehicle tax according to a CO
based principle is something the Commission has been calling for for some time and it saddens me that progress in this matter has been so sluggish.
Mr Groote, you will understand that I cannot express any public view about the question you put to General Motors and Opel. You will have to make do with me saying that we are keeping a very close eye on this development and we are in discussions with all the relevant parties.
I would also like to make those people who have quite rightly put particular emphasis on the employment issue aware that the Commission has, in fact, already tabled a proposal on how the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund can be made more flexible and effective. If the Commission’s proposals were implemented quickly and rapidly realised – and I would issue a pressing request to all of you to do that – we would be in a position to provide help, in particular, for temporary workers in the motor industry and unskilled workers, who are ultimately the ones at the front on the cliff edge.
The rules for the scrapping premiums – this has been addressed numerous times and I would like to say it one more time – are clear cut. There cannot be a European regulation forcing every Member State to take part in this. That is absolutely impossible. Similarly, there can be no European regulation that the level of the premium must be the same everywhere. The reference values must be laid down at European level, and that is the case. We agreed on this at our meeting of 16 January in Brussels.
Finally, I would like to emphasise, once again, what many of you have said, which is that we must think beyond the motor industry when we discuss the current crisis. It is, in fact, absolutely right to say that intelligent traffic systems, intelligent traffic management systems, cutting-edge, innovative solutions for the personal and mass transit of the future must be found and that this crisis perhaps offers an opportunity to push such solutions forward more strongly. Personally, at any rate, I would very much like to see that happen."@en1
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