Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the subject we are dealing with is not politically controversial; on the contrary, it has to do with the safety of air travel, which is a matter of concern for us and for all travellers. Although we are not experts, we know about air travel and have experience of it. From that experience we know that not all airlines and not all aircraft are equally safe. Some companies, who are not too fussy about safety, can still, these days, change over to other airports where less stringent monitoring is in force. That shows the need for a Community safety policy for airports. In any case, the Commission estimates that, even if the likelihood of an accident is unchanged from in 1996, it should necessarily follow from the observable growth in air traffic that, by 2015, there will be a serious accident happening every week. The likelihood of an accident varies widely among different regions and continents. Did you know that the airlines with which you fly in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, are far more likely to meet with accidents – at least twice the world average? The risk is lowest in Western Europe and Australia, but highest in Eastern European countries – 50 times the risk in Western Europe. This directive is therefore absolutely necessary if internationally applied safety controls are to be harmonised. The continued absence of a Community policy is to be regretted; this is still a task for the Member States. It is regrettable too that the Member States and the airlines are afraid of supplying the public with the information that we consider necessary. Report (A5-0315/2003) by Mr Colom i Naval, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets, on the proposals for decisions on the mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund according to point 3 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 7 November 2002 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the financing of the European Union Solidarity Fund, supplementing the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure (COM(2003) 431 – C5-0323/2003 – 2003/0166 (ACI), COM(2003) 529 – C5-0418/2003 – 2003/0206 (ACI)) (Parliament adopted the resolution) *** Report (A5-0316/2003) by Mr Färm, on behalf of the Committee on Budgets, on the Draft Amending Budget N° 5/2003 of the European Union for the financial year 2003, Section III – Commission (13014/2003 – C5-0449/2003 – 2003/2144(BUD) and 2003/2181(BUD)) (Parliament adopted the resolution) *** Report (A5-0311/2003) by Mr Rack, on behalf of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council directive on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network (COM(2002) 769 – C5-0635/2002 – 2002/0309(COD)) (Parliament adopted the legislative resolution) *** Report (A5-0313/2003) by Mrs Frassoni, on behalf of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, on the conclusion of the interinstitutional agreement on ‘Better Law-Making’ between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission (2003/2131(ACI)) (Parliament adopted the decision) *** Second report (A5-0235/2003) by Mr Medina Ortega, on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, on the Commission communications on simplifying and improving Community regulation (COM(2001) 726 – C5-0108/2002 – 2002/2052(COS))

Political group: Verts-ALE