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you did not call me either

i regret this but the vote has already been taken and the decision is made so let us leave the matter there

i am terribly sorry mr hänsch and mr cox i did not see you asking to speak

even so i think the positions are quite clear and they shall be entered in the minutes

when we adopt the minutes for today' s sitting tomorrow then any members who think the positions have not been explained clearly enough may ask for amendments

this seems to me to be a workable solution

of course the minutes for tomorrow' s sitting will take into account any additional explanations

i think this is a better solution than proceeding now to extremely timeconsuming explanations of votes

mr cox mr hänsch would this be acceptable to you

madam president if the vote records correctly how my group voted i shall not and cannot object to that

if your ruling is that i cannot give an explanation of vote i accept that but with reservations

we shall pay particular attention to the wording of the minutes as we always do of course

if they do not properly reflect the positions adopted then we may correct them if necessary

(the order of business was adopted thus amended)

safety advisers for the transport of dangerous goods

the next item is the report (a50105/1999) by mr koch on behalf of the committee on regional policy transport and tourism on the common position adopted by the council with a view to adopting a european parliament and council directive on the harmonisation of examination requirements for safety advisers for the transport of dangerous goods by road rail or inland waterways (c50208/1999 1998/0106(cod))

commissioner madam president ladies and gentlemen i can be quite frank in saying that i welcome the council's common position on harmonising the training of safety advisers for the transport of dangerous goods by road rail or inland waterway

firstly we needed to take action on a formal level in order to meet the requirements of directive 96/35/ec which obliges the member states to appoint safety advisers and to organise the training instruction and examination of these people but does not explain this explicitly

secondly by adopting this directive we achieve a) an increase in safety when dangerous goods are both transported and transhipped b) a reduction in distortions of competition resulting from wide variations in national training structures and training costs and c) equal opportunities for safety advisers on the european labour market

thirdly this directive as it currently stands in the common position guarantees in particular because it confines itself exclusively to minimum standards a high degree of flexibility and modest regulation by the european union by adopting it we contribute to the member states' bearing a high level of individual responsibility

all of this is in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity and is therefore to be greatly welcomed

our amendments from the first reading have i believe been taken into account very satisfactorily

they have either been accepted or transposed with no change in the substance or they have been rejected because the corresponding european arrangements have not been included for example a system of penalties for violations of the rules or a complex classification structure for related groups of questions

the one unanimously adopted amendment of the committee on regional policy and transport which concerns the timetable for implementing the directive is something which i would urge you to support

by not setting a specific date for the member states to implement the directive and instead giving them a period of three months after its entry into force we are introducing a flexibility clause which ensures that the directive will be implemented without delay

i would urge you to endorse this

madam president we cannot and must not accept the fact that we hear ever more frequently of accidents causing major damage on our roads but also on our railways and waterways not solely but at least partly because those involved do not take the transport of dangerous goods seriously enough or because as a result of ignorance or a lack of training on the part of the drivers or others responsible for the various vehicles a minor accident has all too often become a major disaster

as an austrian i still have a vivid memory as i believe we all do of the catastrophe which cost so many human lives last year in the tauern tunnel where subsequent work to rebuild the parts of the tunnel which had been destroyed in this fire continued for many months at huge expense

the renovation project which lasted for months cut off this important route between the north and south of europe

the traffic which had to be diverted because of this stretched the patience of many thousands of people in the eu to the limit

in fact all hell broke loose in some municipalities in my province

prevention has to be our answer to disasters of this kind and this draft directive is an important step towards welltrained safety advisers being available so that the right action is taken in good time

all the same we must not content ourselves with enacting european law to ensure greater safety

we also need to follow this up and make sure that our rules are transposed by the member states in good time and even more importantly we need to ensure that they are also applied afterwards

please let this not be yet another sector where we subsequently have to lament the lack of enforcement

i should like to address one final point we must not content ourselves with sealing another hole in the safety net and shutting our eyes to the fact that where transport safety in europe is concerned there is still much more to be done

in this context i should like to make a request and ask the commissioner responsible who is with us here today to table an appropriate text as soon as possible with a view to continuing to make it safer for traffic to transit tunnels in the future so that we in europe do not have to experience any more such disasters on this scale

madam president first of all i should like to thank mr koch for his report which has at its heart the issue of transport safety

the report looks at the issue of harmonising the examination requirements for safety advisors working in the areas of transportation of dangerous goods by road rail and inland waterway

i congratulate him on his excellent report

transport safety has sadly been in the news recently the paddington rail crash in london the terrible rail crash in norway the two aviation crashes involving eu citizens and the natural disaster involving the erika off brittany all within the last four months remind us that transport safety can never be taken for granted and that those charged with protecting the public must be highly motivated and highly qualified

the rapporteur has pointed out to the house that in its common position the council has accepted six of parliament's ten amendments put forward at first reading and that the substance of parliament's other amendments has been retained

my group will therefore support the common position and looks forward to the enactment of the legislation which will provide us with yet another tool in our fight to make transport in the european union as safe as possible

when it comes to safety my group will always support any initiatives to improve transport safety

we still have a lot of work to do in this area as recent events have proved

madam president the importance of transport safety is highlighted on a regular basis in this parliament and rightly so

the ever increasing volume of goods passing through europe entails all kinds of risks known and unknown for employees and the social environment

those having to deal with these risks should therefore meet stringent requirements

the relevant standards which have been laid down in another directive 95/35/ec seem sufficiently adequate to advise people in a responsible manner on the organisation of the transport of dangerous goods

i am very pleased that agreement has also been reached with the council on minimum standards regarding examinations although i would have preferred it if uniform set standards and modules had been established so that certificates would be of equal value internationally

this however does not seem feasible

finally the amendment tabled by the rapporteur is perfectly logical and i can therefore give it my wholehearted support

mr president commissioner i should first like to congratulate mr koch on his reports which though technical are nonetheless of very great significance for safety

i should like to make just a few comments

firstly i should like to ask the commissioner and i am convinced that my request will fall on fertile ground to ensure that more attention is paid to the issue of safety be it on the roads on the waterways or at sea

considering that it is only today that we are dealing with a commission proposal first made on 19 march 1998 even though parliament responded relatively quickly this time lag is a little too long

this is not just the fault of the commission but i believe that we need to take action more quickly so as to achieve harmonisation in this area as well

my second point has already been mentioned it concerns the minimum standards

in principle i believe that in many cases where transport is concerned we should be working towards increased flexibility and countryspecific rules

however when it comes to safety i am rather sceptical because safety in sweden for example is in principle no different from safety in germany italy or austria

i can live with these minimum standards but i would ask the commission to monitor the situation very carefully

should flexibility of this kind result in there being inadequate rules in some countries then we should work towards greater harmonisation

my third point has also been mentioned already

as you know like mr rack i come from a transit country where this issue plays a particularly important role

we do not want to make the conditions of competition worse for some countries unilaterally and improve them for countries such as austria or other transit countries

but i believe that we should do all we can to keep the transport of dangerous goods to a minimum in all countries whether they are transit countries or not

mr president i would firstly like to congratulate the rapporteur mr koch on his magnificent work and his positive cooperation with the commission with regard to improving the texts and presenting this report and this proposal in the end there is only one amendment on the requirements for the aptitude examination for safety advisers in the transport of dangerous goods by road rail or inland waterway

we understand that it is important that the two institutions parliament and commission cooperate and work together and that the current cooperation with the committee on regional policy and in particular the transport group is magnificent

the common position includes practically all of the amendments accepted by the commission and harmonises the minimum examination requirements for safety advisers and at second reading we can accept the amendment on the proposed date which is much more realistic than the one originally suggested by the commission bearing in mind that we have now spent several years debating this question

very briefly i would like to thank the various members for their interventions and to tell you that safety is one of the commission' s priorities in the field of transport

as mr simpson has said very correctly this is a process which we can never take for granted or regard as having come to an end

the process of increasing safety margins and safety guarantees in transport is a process which must be improved day by day

in this regard i would also like to refer very briefly to the problems of the tunnels which messrs rack and swoboda have referred to which in the case of austria is doubtless a very sensitive issue and great effort should be made to improve their safety

in one of the worst accidents to have occurred recently the goods being transported were not dangerous in themselves

margarine and a few kilos of paint which in principle do not present risks led to a genuine disaster

therefore we will have to see how the requirements guaranteeing the maximum degree of safety can be further improved

finally i would like to say that we have to consider safety in all types of transport

this week we will be holding a debate here on the safety of sea transport in light of the erika disaster and in the course of this year we will have to discuss our objectives in terms of the safety of air transport

but i would like to say that safety is a priority objective for the commission

as i will say in the debate on the erika disaster we do not wait until there is a disaster to deal with the question of safety but we work on it even when there are no such circumstances which simply serve to demonstrate the urgency for an effective response to this type of problem

i would like to repeat my appreciation to all the speakers and especially to the rapporteur mr koch

the debate is closed

the vote will take place tomorrow at 12 pm

transport of dangerous goods by road

the next item is the report (a50104/1999) by mr koch on behalf of the committee on regional policy transport and tourism on the proposal for a european parliament and council directive amending directive 94/55/ec on the approximation of the laws of the member states with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by road [com(1999) 158 c50004/1999 1999/0083(cod)]

mr president commissioner ladies and gentlemen the directive on the approximation of the laws of the member states with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by road which entered into force on 1 january 1997 contains a number of transitional provisions which are only valid for a limited period of time the term of validity being linked to the completion of specific standardisation work by the cen that is the european committee for standardisation

delays in the cen' s work are now making it difficult to apply this very directive

in particular annexes cannot be adapted to take account of technical and industrial developments

i regret this since we are having to take action because others have not done their job

in this respect i accept this proposal to amend directive 94/55/ec which has been tabled for discussion today

should the european union fail to take action then member states would be obliged to amend their national legislation for a very brief period until the cen completes its work which would cause unnecessary cost and uncertainty

the amendment to the directive on today's agenda does not therefore affect the existing harmonisation of the transport of dangerous goods in the community

it merely prolongs transitional rules by postponing deadlines deletes provisions which are no longer applicable and lays down the procedures for a) carrying out the ad hoc transportation of dangerous goods and b) enacting less stringent national regulations in particular for the transport of very small amounts of dangerous goods within strictly defined local areas

the amendment to the directive is consequently in full accordance with the principle of subsidiarity the member states obtain more powers

the commission decides whether the member states may impose certain rules of their own

in so doing it is supported by a committee of experts on the transport of dangerous goods under the regulatory procedure

the procedures for the exercise of these implementing powers conferred on the commission were laid down afresh in the council decision of june 1999

the proposal to be discussed today to amend the directive on the transport of dangerous goods by road dates from may 1999 however and could not therefore take account of the latest comitology procedure

two of the amendments tabled and adopted unanimously by the committee relate precisely to this amended comitology procedure

we would like to ensure that there is a reference to this as early as the recitals and that the period within which the council has to make a decision which is not clearly worded is set at a maximum of three months