Text tabled : A6-0410/2005

  Marie-Arlette Carlotti (PSE), in writing. – (FR) The Commission wants to bring into force a directive that was already rejected three times by the European Parliament during the last legislative term. This is a denial of democracy.

There is, however, no reason to adopt this text today. It is a text that seriously threatens people’s safety and jobs.

By means of self-handling, which allows ‘novices’ to do dock work and to handle cargo, this text introduces social dumping and calls safety arrangements into question.

Out of all those groups working in the ports, not one is satisfied with this text: not the shipowners, not the pilots and not the boatmen.

Why, then, if not in the name of free enterprise, do we want to turn our ports into supermarkets by selling off the port structures to the private sector?

European ports are competitive, and if we were to make laws, they would relate to maritime safety, the safety of the straits, spatial planning and the very high concentration of crews in the North Sea to the detriment of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Commission proposal does not meet the current requirement of our ports. It must be rejected.

This month, it is the port services directive and, next month, it will be the ‘Bolkestein’ Directive. When are we going to listen to what Europeans have to say?