Brussels, 15/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Clean, safer and more technologically advanced transport in a more harmonised market: these are the priorities for the sector that the French presidency of the EU presented to the European Parliament transport committee on Tuesday 15 July. The presidency also wants to finalise work on the third maritime package (ERIKA 3) by tackling (at the end of the summer break at the informal transport ministers meeting on 1-2 September) the two last proposals in the package (state control of flags flown and ship-owners responsibilities) that have been blocked at a Council level since April (EUROPE 9638).
The presidency has been put under pressure by parliament, which is very supportive of this case, and the debate could prove to be quite heated. At the risk of the text being abandoned, the presidency will have to undo the texts, with opposition from several Member States with regard to the removal of the ceiling on civil liability of ship-owners and the obligation of ensuring against damages to third parties, as well as compulsory ratification of international agreements. Dominique Bussereau, the French secretary of state for transport told MEPs that, “I know that you support the principle of an agreement on the whole package of texts” and assured them that she would do all she could to shift things in this direction, “let's not run the risk of blocking all the texts…Let's now try to reach an agreement on the (5) texts that are the subject of a common position” (EUROPE 9679). He also warned that the EP committee was getting ready to examine them in a second reading on 4 September (Ed). Bussereau insisted that as for the remaining two texts, “I intend to get the Transport Council to examine them and I am counting on our informal meeting in La Rochelle to move the debate forward. The Council wants the other dossiers, such as the “green transport “ package adopted by the European Commission on 8 July to be tackled (EUROPE 9699). The first exchange of views on this package will take place in La Rochelle and will formally continue at the transport council on 9-10 October. Mr Bussereau acknowledged that he was aware that, “revision of the Eurovignette directive (one of the components in the package) is a sensitive subject because of the price of diesel and the misgivings of countries on the EU's periphery”. He believes that they will have to respect the principle of subsidiary in this package and consider these measures as a “tool box” so that Member States have enough flexibility; reach an agreement with parliament on the directive on “clean vehicles”; make progress during December's transport council on the “freight priority railway network “on the basis of the Commission proposal due in the autumn”; tackle the question of urban mobility, initially at the La Rochelle (with parliament) then the proposal of conclusions for the December transport council; tackle the issue of road cabotage (road package); conclude as quickly as possible the directive on cross-border sanctions; reach an agreement in December on the Single Sky 2” agreement, which the French presidency considers essential; launch negotiations with Jordan and Israel on aviation and promote the adoption of negotiating mandates with other Mediterranean countries; finalise, during the EU-Canada summit aviation agreements with Ottawa (an overall agreement and an agreement on aviation security); push forward the Galileo project (implementation by an institutional panel) and launch the second stage of the SESAR project (particularly the adoption of the project management plan) (A.By./trans/rh)