In his report the rapporteur, Mr Aparicio Sánchez, addressed the Commission’s proposal for a regulation which has been largely based on statistical evidence and concessions. As regards the statistical evidence on which the proposed distribution of permits for heavy goods vehicles is based, the figures to date relating to foreign trade cannot possibly be correct since with the existing 28 tonne limit in Switzerland, long haul road transport, for example from Greece, is just not profitable and is therefore not practised. It is just like distributing visual aids to a group of people, some of whom are blind, according to the amount of printed material they read per annum. Obviously the blind, who would need visual aids more than the others, would get nothing simply because they do not and cannot read. The situation is not helped by the fact that foreign trade and the use of transport services do not necessarily go hand in hand. For economic reasons, vast quantities of goods are exported in vehicles from other Member States and not from the Member State which produces them. Of course, full liberalisation of the internal transport market makes it virtually impossible to keep tabs on all this. Assessing the needs for transit permits is based on the current traffic flows through the Alpine Region, particularly through Austria, and takes no account of the fact that this traffic flow is largely regulated by the restrictive system of housepoints according to which other allocation quota for Member States have previously been calculated. Mr Aparicio Sánchez obviously took this factor into consideration when drawing up his report, but, as we all know, the figures are only indicative in nature and are based on available existing figures; they do not accurately reflect the reality of the situation. We should not forget either that the proposed changes are transitional in nature since the liberalisation of 40-tonne vehicles will only take effect from 1 January 2005. Furthermore, it seems likely that the EU-Switzerland Agreement will not enter into force before 2001 or even later because of the procedures involved in the relevant areas, in which case the transitional period will be shortened significantly. Mr Aparicio Sánchez has obviously studied the issue carefully using all the above figures and, together with other members of our committee, has come up with some substantial improvements. The return for reallocation of any unused permits by 15 September instead of 15 November as the Commission had proposed, will ultimately reduce the possibility of unfairness in the final distribution, which must be based solely on real needs and will help companies plan their operations better. I would like to thank the rapporteur for his sterling work and we should honour him by approving his report. As regards the agreement concerning the report under discussion, and any other agreement with Switzerland for that matter, where will they lead? Perhaps when a final agreement for Switzerland’s accession has been ratified, all this will no longer be an issue to us. Thank you for listening so late in the evening to my maiden speech in this Chamber and I wish you all the best for the new millennium.

Political group: PSE