Roland Gewalt, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – (DE) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the harmonisation of the very highly divergent regulations applicable to civil aviation in Europe, particularly to the hours that flight crew work, is urgently needed.

At this time of the year, millions of Europeans are once more setting off on their holidays, and doing so by air. There has been an explosive increase in air travel over the last 20 years in Europe, and, as air travel now knows practically no national boundaries, it is an anachronism that very different regulations should apply to air safety from one country to another.

The object of this regulation is to at least make these rules more closely approximate, and that is an aim that is, as far as I am aware, supported by all the groups in this House, so we can content ourselves with making changes in a few areas, for example to the rules that put crew on freight flights at a disadvantage, where changes really do have to be made.

We must not, however, make the mistake of adding features that deal only with social security and labour law to a technical regulation that is meant to serve the interests of safety in the air; mixing these together would make the regulation’s direction less clear and tend to weaken it.

Nor must we try to interfere in collective agreements between unions and employers, which are subject to labour law; such collective agreements cannot be the subject of action on the part of the state, not even action by the European Union.

If we do not lose sight of the fact that the regulation is intended to do no more than make air travel safer, then I am sure that passengers will, in future, be able to expect comparable technical safety standards, irrespective of the airport in the European Union at which they embark on their flight. For that reason alone, this regulation is deserving of support.

I am most grateful for the sound work done by Mr Stockmann, the rapporteur.