Mr President, the rapporteur, Mr Paolo Costa, has asked me to deputise for him because the agenda of the session has changed and he had to be in Italy. The conciliation procedure for the Costa report on lorries in transit through Austria was extremely difficult and demoralising, if you like, for all of us who were involved, because this is an arrangement which concerns a specific Member State, namely Austria. There were Members, Austrian members, who – quite understandably in my opinion – had every reason to have an acute awareness of the issues we were debating, because the Austrian people had, and continue to have, a particular awareness of this specific issue, which was why, moreover, the relevant protocol was drawn up when Austria acceded to the European Union in 1995. However, these provisions have expired, which is why the European Parliament took the view even at first reading that 2006 should be the last year during which there should be specific arrangements for Austria, especially as there has been an improvement as regards environmental protection, which has also been recorded in the statistics given to us by the Commission. As you know, there were differences of opinion between Parliament and the Council. On the one hand, Parliament maintained that the measures granting Austria beneficial treatment should be limited solely to the Alpine area, while on the other hand the Council maintained that they should apply to the whole of Austria. And then, as regards the lorries which should or should not pass through, Parliament again took the view that more lorries should pass through. The views of the two institutions moved closer together during the conciliation procedure. We accepted the Council's view that the special measures should apply to the whole of the Austrian state, while the Council moved closer to Parliament's view, meaning that some of the lorries which the Council proposed should not pass through or should pass through with quotas, will now pass through freely; this was the logic behind Parliament's proposals and it only concerns some, not all, of the lorries. Finally, there was one issue, in that the number of lorries subject to quotas was limited, that is, how many eco-points should be available, and on this point Parliament, in a demonstration of solidarity with Austria and our honourable Austrian friends, called for the total number of eco-points to be limited by a considerable percentage. Finally, this opinion on the part of Parliament was accepted by the Council and that is how we arrived at the result of the conciliation. Our honourable Austrian friends voted against it because they considered the measures excessively strict for Austria, while there were other honourable Members, such as Mr Ferber from Bavaria, who considered that the result of the conciliation was excessively lenient for Austria and he therefore voted against it as well. I have to say, both as a member of the conciliation committee and as representative of the Group of the , that the result was balanced, the agreement which we reached was ultimately a good agreement and this is, if you like, also proven by the fact that the various directly interested parties voted against it, some because they considered the measures lenient and others because they considered them strict. In all events, after such protracted and difficult negotiations, I cannot but recommend today to all the honourable Members, Mr President, that they vote in favour of the result which we achieved in the conciliation procedure, because these measures must apply until the cut-off date in 2006. If, in the meantime, there is progress on the Eurovignette, the relevant agreement will also apply in the case of Austria. Anyway, from 2006 onwards, the same will also apply to Austria as applies to the other European countries, the basic reason being that, according to the statistics at least, there has been an improvement in the environmental indicators, to which improvements in the lorry fleet have made a decisive contribution. So there has been progress in the environmental performance of the lorries which pass through Austria. Mr President, we the Group of the will vote by a large majority in favour of the result of the conciliation procedure. I am, of course, aware that some members are not happy. To our honourable Austrian friends in particular, I want to say that we took very serious account of their comments and of the comments of the Austrian Government, which fought a very hard battle to support the Austrian positions. However, we could go no further. The same applies to the honourable Members from the other political groups. We could not move any closer to the Austrian positions, because then we would have had problems with Members from other representations. So we have a good result, as good as it could be and, for that reason, I think that it will be approved at the vote by a large majority of Members. (From the beginning of the debate, Mr Hans-Peter Martin held up a placard protesting against heavy goods vehicle traffic in the Alps.) President. – Let me point out to you, Mr Martin, that I am obliged by Rule 123 of the Rules of Procedure to call you to order. I will also point out to you that, should you repeat your actions and thus oblige me to do so again, a note will be made to that effect in the Minutes of the sitting. If this warning is of no effect, then I will, with regret, have to order you from the Chamber, so I ask you to desist from your disorderly conduct.

Political group: PPE-DE