Lisi (PPE-DE). – (IT) Mr President, Commissioner de Palacio is quite right to express her satisfaction with the work that was carried out on a very sensitive road safety issue. As a group, we must congratulate Mr Rack, who carried out a very difficult task. Let us not forget that the text that will emerge from this House today is a text that strongly reflects the contribution made by the European Parliament and its amendments. The first Commission version, as Commissioner de Palacio said, was somewhat too regulatory and prescriptive and it would have been difficult to enforce. I feel that we should be delighted to stress, on the one hand, the excellent work by the rapporteur and, on the other hand, this good example of Community legislation. When they want to, the three institutions are capable of working together and working well. I feel that this is an extremely important message, for our European citizens too, since the issue of road safety, as the Commissioner recalled, is something that we have long been concerned with in this parliamentary term.

I am disappointed, Commissioner, that we did not succeed in finishing off the proposal on driving licences but unfortunately there was not enough time for us to do so. I am also disappointed that in the next parliamentary term we will not, I am sorry to say, have your tenacity and constancy to wrap up the issues that remain open. Nonetheless, I am convinced that you will, in any case, contribute in other roles.

That being said, we still have to take a further step on this issue. A large part of the costs of this provision will fall on some countries of the Union in particular – at least 50% of these tunnels are in my country – and I believe that it would be useful, in the next parliamentary term, to find means to financially support this endeavour, which should not be left solely to individual Member States but must involve all the European institutions.