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in addition the need for greater transparency has been pointed out

a further amendment allows the member states to impose more stringent requirements in particular for vacuum tanks if work is done or goods are transported as a priority in temperatures well below 20ºc this is in the special interest of northern european regions

a final amendment is intended to ensure that tanks and tankers put into service between 1 january 1997 and the entry into force of this directive may continue to be used provided that they have been constructed and maintained in accordance with it

i do realise that this is only a small step towards increased transport safety but i would ask you to endorse this report

mr president colleagues a happy new year and millennium to you all

i am speaking for the first time in this plenary partsession so this is quite exciting for me a little like first love although that did last longer than two minutes

i would like to briefly comment on the commission' s proposal to amend the directive on the transport of dangerous goods by road

it is good that this directive should be established now as otherwise member states would have to amend their national acts for a very short time a period of transition which would again mean unnecessary costs and which would once more increase concern with regard to eu bureaucracy

the commission' s proposal however does not take account of all the facts such as the cold climate that prevails in the northern regions

consequently i have tabled some amendments to mr koch' s intrinsically excellent report which have been adopted by our committee

my amendments concern the frostresistance ratings for tankers carrying these dangerous goods

according to the commission' s proposal 20ºc would have been sufficient on the shores of the mediterranean it is hard to imagine that in lapland temperatures can fall considerably lower than that

there is support for the eu in lapland also so let us remember them

i have thus proposed that the frost rating be lowered to 40ºc

this would be necessary to keep safety standards at the level they were in northern regions previously

i hope my proposal will be taken into consideration in tomorrow' s vote

mr president with your permission i should like to begin by expressing my admiration for the way in which you executed the quick changeover of the chairmanship just now during the debate

i thought that it was quite superb

on the subject at hand i think that the people of europe must be able to be confident that the goods however dangerous they are which are transported on europe's roads railways and so on are as safe as possible

this directive is a contribution to this

what we are doing today is essentially a nuisance

the rapporteur mr koch to whom we express our thanks for the work which he has done on this has already pointed out that basically everything could have been somewhat more advanced had it not been for the inactivity on the part of the cen which has been very dilatory in drawing up and adapting the directive

that is why we can only hope and we should resolve all of this this week that in 2001 we will finally have community regulations for the transport of dangerous goods by road so that we have a degree of legal certainty here and also so that our roads are a good deal safer

mr president the report we are discussing here does not in itself entail any major changes

most of the proposed amendments are of a purely technical nature

it is nonetheless worth emphasising that each time we make this type of decision it is good from a broad environmental perspective and it is beneficial because it creates better prior conditions for exploiting the possibilities of the internal market

very large quantities of dangerous goods are transported around the eu both on roads and railways and by sea

this makes it necessary to have proper rules governing transport of this kind

in area after area we are now obtaining common minimum regulations for the member states

this is extraordinarily positive and there is cause to thank the rapporteur mr koch for the work he has put in on this issue

this is also important where the prerequisites for the internal market are concerned

if we are to get a common transport market genuinely up and running it is important that we should not only have regulations but that these regulations should also as far as possible apply to every country

i should like to conclude by commenting on a third matter which is also of significance namely an amendment tabled by member of parliament mr ari vatanen

in many ways the prerequisites differ from one member state to another

by approving this amendment we take account of the fact that it can be very cold in the northern parts of the european union

this makes it necessary to also take account of the ways in which materials and packaging are affected by cold of this kind

it is good that in establishing the present regulations we can also be flexible

i hope that the commission is able to accept the present amendment

mr president i would like to thank not only mr koch but also the vicepresident of the commission for the clear and unambiguous way in which they have declared their support for safety in the transport sector and acknowledged it as a priority

the reason mr koch produced his sound report was because the work in the cen and within the united nations economic commission was proceeding none too expeditiously

i would like to ask the vicepresident if she is in a position to tell us today what the state of play is with regard to the efforts towards harmonisation being made by these two organisations and whether the eu is in a position to hasten these harmonisation efforts in accordance with principles that are as simple as possible

for one thing is clear even if we come to an excellent arrangement within the european union traffic does not stop at our borders it goes beyond them

hence there is certainly every reason to introduce more farreaching regional provisions

if the commissioner is unable to do so today then would she be prepared to inform the committee in writing of how matters stand and what stage negotiations between the cen and the economic commission are at

mr president i would once again like to congratulate mr koch on his magnificent work on this other report which in a way supplements the debate which we held in october on rail transport

we all regret that the european committee for standardisation (cen) has not been able in the required time to carry out the amendment of the provisions necessary for the required harmonisation within the european union

this debate and the amendment of the directive currently in force allow us to incorporate differentiating elements which demonstrate the diversity of this europe of ours

a moment ago mr vatanen spoke to us of lower temperatures not of 20 degrees below zero but of 40 degrees below zero

of course we accept that amendment it is absolutely right and i believe that we should incorporate specific circumstances which demonstrate the climatic diversity of the european union which sometimes take the form of specifics and of concrete requirements for the establishment of standards and characterisations of a technical nature

i would like to say with regard to mr swoboda' s comments on the activity of the cen that we are urging them to speed up their work as much as possible because it would be terrible if despite the new deadline we were to find ourselves after a year and a bit with the same difficulties because their work has not been concluded

lastly mr president the basic problems justifying this amendment of the directive have been pointed out we have referred to the delay by the cen the amendment of certain provisions the consistency between the text of the directive and the content of the annexes and the need to for it to be more specific

the commission accepts all of the contributions of the parliamentary committee and the rapporteur mr koch which are contained in the various amendments specifically four

we therefore accept the four amendments which have been proposed

the debate is closed

the vote will take place tomorrow at 12 pm

structural funds cohesion fund coordination

the next item is the report (a50108/1999) by mrs schroedter on behalf of the committee on regional policy transport and tourism on the communication from the commission in the field of the structural funds and their coordination with the cohesion fund guidelines for programmes in the period 20002006 [com(1999)344 c50122/1999 1999/2127(cos)]

mr president it is particularly pleasing for me to make my first speech in the european parliament on what is regarded as the most important issue within that part of the united kingdom that i represent in this parliament namely wales

a major part of wales as you know has been granted objective 1 status under the structural funds programme

it is quite clear that many people within wales are looking to the european structural funds programme to alleviate some of the great difficulties that we undoubtedly face

we have seen poverty growing in wales and growing still further since 1997

we have seen the gap between rich and poor widen

we are looking therefore within the structural funds programme not just to see industrial restructuring but also to see a wider improvement in the whole of the economic base within the principality

what is however deeply damaging for us is the belief that in some way the granting of structural funds assistance is something that has been in a sense a success of the government

it is sadly only a recognition of the very great difficulties that wales faces

that is why i want to highlight some of the issues that i believe the commission must have at the forefront

we look to the commission to deal with points in relation to additionality

we are dissatisfied with the fact that those figures seem to have been in some way hidden within uk figures

we look to the commission also to ensure that there is matched funding for projects

we look to it to challenge the uk government to ensure that the private sector which surely must be providing the major impetus for structural funds expenditure is involved in the planning stage

finally we ask that the commission ensures that structural fund monies are spent in a way which is transparent

too much of what takes place within this parliament is not transparent

this is one area in which i believe the commission can be a very great friend to wales

mr president our committee views these issues very differently and to start i will speak from the point of view of research

we see it as a very positive sign that in her own conclusions the rapporteur has taken account of our committee' s proposal that the cohesion fund countries should broaden the research infrastructure by locating universities and colleges in such a way that they would serve those who live in undeveloped regions better than now and make it easier for educated people to remain in their home districts

this will be possible with action on the part of governments and such decentralisation of higher education will be an unquestionably useful policy in evening out development

another matter we would like to address specifically from the point of view of industrial policy is that we would have liked the commission to pay more attention to the effects of services electronic commerce and the growing use of the internet when they were planning the coordination of structural funds and cohesion funds

poverty and wealth used to depend more on means of livelihood

the rich areas were those where there were jobs in industry but today those areas might have become a burden and they may well be poor meaning we also have to invest in new sectors of industry such as electronic production as i might call it and the production of services because they are the industries of the future

in my opinion the committee drafting the report has not taken sufficient account of this so on behalf of the committee on industry external trade research and energy i would draw the commission' s attention to this issue

finally as the committee representing energy we would have liked the issue of support for renewable energy resources from cohesion and regional development funds to have been emphasised still more thus through a process of coordination increasing the use of renewables so that the scant funding resources in the energy programme might have been compensated by means of these more substantial sums

mr president i would very much like to thank mrs schroedter for the work she has done on this and to explain to colleagues that i am speaking for my colleague mrs flautre who followed this for the committee on employment and social affairs but who is unfortunately ill

i would like to draw people's attention to amendments nos 1 and 2 which were agreed by the committee on employment and social affairs but not accepted by the committee on regional policy transport and tourism

these amendments deal with the social economy and the need to provide social risk capital and support financially local schemes to develop employment opportunities and strengthen social cohesion

in the past this parliament has viewed the social economy as an important potential provider of employment

these amendments also fit in with this parliament's view that social exclusion is a serious issue needing constructive action

we hope that those considering rejection of these amendments have very powerful reasons to offer to both parliament and their citizens who are seeking employment

in her report mrs flautre also drew attention to an area where coordination is sorely lacking yet desperately needed

the commission proposals refer to the four pillars of employment strategy and the five fields of action of the european social fund

but the lack of specific guidelines here is particularly to be regretted as the idea of linking social fund assistance to the employment strategy will be put into effect for the first time during the 20002006 programme

it could be said that the omission gives the impression that the commission too has no idea how to provide maximum coordination between european social fund assistance which is subject to review after three and a half years and the member states' annual national plans for employment

we hope that the commission can reassure us that this was an oversight which is now being dealt with constructively

mr president commissioner the proposal presented by the commission in accordance with its mandate is a reasonable starting point for the committee on agriculture and rural development

i would like to point out however that this starting point indicates to us the challenges which face us maintaining a population in rural areas given the changes taking place in all types of economic activity owing to agriculture' s increasing lack of importance amongst the various sources of income for rural society

this as well as the deficiencies in the networks of infrastructures and services and a generally very low level of employment which furthermore is seasonal and lacks diversity exacerbates the exodus from rural areas

the consequences do not inspire hope

it is the young people who are disappearing who are getting an education and finding work outside of the rural areas all of which has an unfavourable effect on those areas

this lack of infrastructure is also an obstacle to the establishment of companies and the creation of jobs

we have to remember that rural areas represent almost four fifths of the territory of the european union

agriculture only provides 55 of employment in the union