Mr President, before I begin I would like to say that I am surprised at this last intervention, because Mr Sterckx is not the only one tabling an amendment. The Socialist Group is also tabling an amendment and, of course, what we want is to create a temporary committee, and I do not think that this is the time or the place to call into question the admissibility of this amendment, as tabled, and this refers to both our own amendment and that of the rapporteur. Nunca Máis was the cry we heard from November onwards in my region, Galicia – in other regions they were listening much further away – but also in other European regions that were affected by the Prestige disaster, not the Erika disaster, the Prestige disaster. Unfortunately, it is not a new cry. As someone pointed out, it was a cry that was heard after the Urquiola, Aegean Sea and Erika disasters. The world moves quickly, consumer information, a product of our society, requires, like Saturn, new children to devour and new tragedies to hold the attention of the people. Clearly, after each tragedy the same thing has happened: some months after, the public’s attention moves on to other issues and the promised changes remain just that, mere promises. So we are here now in this Parliament with the opportunity to ensure for once that that does not happen. We are here to ensure that for the first time a temporary committee is established – which my group has been calling for since the beginning of the tragedy – to analyse the causes and effects of the Prestige disaster, to examine the Community and international regulations concerning maritime safety and to ensure the application of the petitions this Parliament will make tomorrow when approving the report we are debating today. I would like to thank Mr Sterckx and congratulate him on his report on my own behalf, on behalf of my group and on behalf of many Galicians who have a great deal of respect for your work, Mr Sterckx, thanks to your dedication, your political sensitivity and, above all, your impartiality. The Socialist Group has made very clear its reasons for wanting the temporary committee. It has a vision of Europe that goes far beyond the sum of the 15 national realities. We believe that it is up to the institutions to promote certain policies, including maritime safety, and it is up to this House to ensure political control, which up to today – and even today – some people have tried to deny it. I am pleased that the rapporteur and the share this view and I call on the Group of the European People’s Party in this House to unite with us rather than remaining alone on the sideline. Indeed, what was the problem in this tragedy? Was it the lack of places of refuge? No, of course not. The person or persons who decided to move the vessel further out to sea have never said that they moved the vessel because there was no place of refuge. On the contrary, what they say is that if the same thing happened again today, they would move it out to sea in the same way. What was the problem with this tragedy? Well, I believe it was the fact that it was played down. It has been said today that a temporary committee for the Erika would be accepted but not a temporary committee for the Prestige. Mr Hatzidakis has said things that were much worse, for example that this was a Spanish problem. We will talk about that later. Thus, two Erika packages were drawn up and yet you do not want to admit that a Prestige package is required. The tourism minister in my region, Galicia, says that this is more of a media disaster than an ecological disaster, and he says this with 51 000 tonnes of waste collected from the sea, 79 000 tonnes of waste collected from the land and in France 31 000 tonnes collected from the land and 1 500 tonnes from the sea, solely along the French Atlantic coastline, and he said this 10 days ago, on the same day that the oil reached the Belgian coast. That is what the minister says. We want a Prestige committee, we want a Prestige package and we want us to go on talking about the Prestige for one simple reason: because the people who are unaware of its history, ladies and gentlemen, are destined to repeat it, and we do not want this tragedy ever to be repeated again, either in Galicia, in Greece, or anywhere else. (Applause)

Political group: PSE