Mr President, two years after the negative result of the referendum in Switzerland on its integration into the European Economic Area, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate bilateral agreements with that country in the necessary fields. The draft regulation which has now been submitted for Parliament’s approval complements one of the agreements that has been reached, specifically the one on the transport of goods and passengers by rail and road. In accordance with this agreement, a maximum number of lorries from the Community weighing over 28 tonnes will be authorised to transit Switzerland until 2005, when this country, in aligning itself with Community law, will not require permits for lorries of up to 40 tonnes. Thus, as soon as this regulation comes into force, the current situation, which does not allow lorries of more than 28 tonnes to travel through Swiss territory, will end. In 2000, 250 000 permits have been allowed for lorries weighing over 28 tonnes with a full load registered in the European Union. From 2001, permits will be granted for lorries weighing more than 34 tonnes, with free transit for those weighing between 28 and 34 tonnes. This number will rise to 300 000 per year in 2001 and 2002 and to 400 000 per year in 2003 and 2004. On the other hand, lorries allowed to transit empty has been fixed at 220 000 per year. The current regulation – which I think is totally correct – proposes a system for the allocation of these permits between the Fifteen Member States. Each one will receive 1500 per year and the rest will be allocated according to current, real or theoretical figures for bilateral traffic and transit traffic. I must express my reservations about two negative circumstances. Firstly, the present proposal is being debated and voted on in this House before we know the overall Agreement with Switzerland so we are being asked to approve one part without knowing the whole thing. Secondly, we lack reliable and up-to-date statistics on current flows of goods transport between Switzerland and the European Union even though this study is about to be completed and the same regulation lays down that in 2000, the current allocation figures could be modified if the true figures differ significantly from those that are currently envisaged. With regard to both of these factors, I think that the desire that this regulation which must be adopted by the codecision procedure should come into force on the same day as the Agreement, is a sufficient argument to explain the need for haste. I declare my complete agreement with the basic issue, that is, with the proposed method of calculation for allocating the number of permits to the different Member States and that, given the circumstances, it is the most objective, rigorous and fair method possible. Furthermore, the regulation lays down, as I said, a system for the annual allocation of any permits that have not been allocated. It is to be hoped that in turn, each Member State will allocate the permits that it has been allocated with equally objective criteria to its hauliers. By way of a summary, I shall give you some figures. If we apply the proposed system, the distribution of the 1,650 000 permits allowing the circulation of heavy goods vehicles over the five years gives a result of 36% to Germany, 20.5% to Italy, 15.5% to France, 7.8% to the Netherlands, 6.6% to Belgium, 3.8% to Austria with the remaining 10% to be distributed amongst the remaining Member States. Mr President, a few amendments put forward by the two Parliamentary Committees that have been debating the draft improve on some details and contribute to the overall fairness of the regulation and to the ease of managing it. I think that it is very important that, as the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism has decided by means of a vote, we maintain the Commission’s proposed minimum allocation of 1500 permits for each Member State. I must point out that this number is very low, equivalent to two trips per day for each country, and that the total of all these permits to be allocated automatically over five years does not even represent 7% of the total. I shall thus end by highlighting once again the overall quality of the draft project. I congratulate the Commission on it and ask the honourable Members to approve this draft regulation.

Political group: PSE