Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-25-Speech-4-069"
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"en.20100225.5.4-069"2
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"I, too, wish to express my sympathy for the victims on behalf of my group, and I, too, wish to await the results of the investigation, of course. I hope this is carried out as quickly as possible, but also as thoroughly as possible.
In my country, a number of questions have been raised as to the nature of Europe’s approach to the railways. I have to be honest with you: I am shocked that some people have accused us of neglecting safety. I was Parliament’s rapporteur on the Railway Safety Directive to which Mr El Khadraoui has just referred, and I am proud of the work we did back then. We told ourselves that we needed to be very demanding as regards safety in all Member States and we needed to establish a European framework for this and to lay down requirements. We got this past the Member States with very great difficulty. I note – and Mr El Khadraoui rightly mentioned this – that in some countries, unfortunately, including my own, the implementation of this directive at national level is in fact poorly organised. I hope you take another good look at this, Commissioner. Perhaps this House, too, should take another look at the directive and tighten up the framework, as Mr Grosch said. It is not true that we are neglecting safety, therefore; the reverse is true.
Secondly, the Regulation on passengers’ rights contains a paragraph we hoped would never be needed: it concerns advance payments for people killed or injured in rail accidents. I welcome the announcement by the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB) that it will be using this system and making advance payments. Indeed, there was a time when this would not have been so.
Some people have said that opening up the market has made the railways unsafe. I wish to contradict this in the strongest terms. It is not true, as a look at the latest European Railway Agency data, from 2008, will demonstrate. The best-performing countries in 2008 were the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, two countries that have opened up their markets.
I also think attention should be paid to the people, to the railway workers on the ground: train drivers, station staff, administrators. We should be taking another look at their situation and ensuring that safety is the prime consideration in not only their training but also the organisation of their work and the whole corporate culture. By way of conclusion, Mr President, I should like to say that we must not lose sight of the fact that the railways are still among the safest means of transport around."@en1
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