European Parliament
Vlasto (PPE-DE ),
in writing.
(FR)
I voted in favour of the creation of a temporary commission, for it is evident that we must maintain absolute vigilance on the subject of safety at sea in Europe, so that the measures we adopt in this House might be fully and effectively applied in the Member States. That must be the purpose of a temporary commission, which will only be of use if it endeavours to improve Community legislation and to check that it is being applied.
The
Prestige
disaster hit our coasts and our populations hard. A temporary commission will certainly have lessons to draw from this tragedy, but certainly not lessons to give to any government. This petty political objective, which has been pursued by a number of left-wing MEPs, has unfortunately sullied the conclusions of Mr Sterckx’s report.
I regret this all the more, given that, following the loss of the
Erika
, our Parliament had marked itself out by its non-partisan work. Out of respect for the victims, in Spain and France, of the oil slick from the
Prestige
, I hope that we shall fittingly pursue our work in the interests of safety at sea.

