European Parliament
Bruno Gollnisch (NI ).
(FR)
Mr President, the Naiades programme for the development of inland waterways and Mrs Wortmann-Kool's report contain some excellent things. I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise the need to complete the Rhine-Rhone link. This link is an extremely important route that will enable us to connect the South of France and the Western Mediterranean with the Rhine-Main-Danube basin, and hence with the new and emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe all the way to the Black Sea. In my opinion, this programme is a top priority, and I hope that it is to the completion of this link – the technical and environmental difficulties of which I am well aware of but do not consider to be insurmountable – that the resources mobilised under this programme will be allocated as the first priority.

