European Parliament calls on Member States to join efforts to improve maritime safety. EPP responsible for sinking inland waters safety
Today in Brussels the European
Parliament adopted six reports at second reading to boost maritime safety in
European waters. The reports introduce a number of proposals on safety and
environmental issues to improve port inspection and traffic monitoring, refuge
for ships in distress, and liability for carriers in the event of accidents.
"In the aftermath of the accident with the Erika and the Prestige, we
finally have succeeded in developing a quick and efficient system for giving
assistance to ships in difficulty near our coasts. I hope we can find a quick
agreement with the Council on these proposals. We need this system if we want to
avoid a disaster like Prestige or Erika", commented Dirk STERCKX (Open Vlaamse
Liberalen en Democraten, Belgium) MEP (ALDE), the parliamentary coordinator of
the entire package. The adopted reports will need now to be approved by Member
States, too, whose meeting is due on the 8th of October.
In this view, "we
fully support the efforts of the French Presidency to reach an agreement with
the Parliament on all the proposals put forward by the Commission to improve
maritime safety", Mr Sterckx added.
However, the European Parliament proposals were severely undermined
by the majority vote of the centre-right MEPs, who decided to exclude rivers and
inland waters from these provisions.
"Our aim was and still is to provide
every traveller by sea and by river with the same levels of safety and
protection existing for other means of transports, like cars or airplanes",
added Paolo COSTA MEP (Partito Democratico, Italy), Chairman of the European
Parliament Committee on Transport. "To this end, for example, it is no longer
acceptable to have different policies in Europe on the liability of carriers: we
want compulsory insurance on all vessels entering European waters just as we do
for automobiles. It is a pity that the EPP Group did not share this view and
considered that travellers on a river or lake do not deserve the same safety as
those travelling by sea. This is an unnecessary discrimination that has to be
cancelled as soon as possible", Mr Costa concluded.
Contact information |
Neil Corlett; Paolo Alberti
(email: neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu) Phone: +32-2-284 20 77 or +32-478-78 22 84 ; +32-2-283 20 40 or +32-476-95 51 44 |
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News type | Inbrief |
File link | n/a |
Source of information | ALDE-PRESS |
Subject(s) | NATURAL MEDIUM , POLICY-WATER POLICY AND WATER MANAGEMENT , PREVENTION AND NUISANCES POLLUTION |
Geographical coverage | EU |
News date | 24/09/2008 |
Working language(s) | ENGLISH |