madam president this initiative has been in gestation for almost three years and for once i found myself on the side of the council rather than of parliament
of course we need to protect the rights of passengers and particularly those with disabilities but the initial proposal as philip bradbourn has said if adopted would have serious consequences for small transport providers
indeed it would put many of them out of business
for that reason the conciliation process was vital and the compromise reached strikes a fair balance between passengers rights on the one hand and those of service providers on the other
i fully agree with mr bradbourn that you cannot equate sea passenger rights air passenger rights rail passenger rights and bus passenger rights all in the same package
for that reason talking about a consolidated package simply is not something that is feasible and realisable
i would like to pay a compliment to the chair of the committee on transport and tourism brian simpson who did an excellent job to the rapporteur mr cancian and to our own coordinator mathieu grosch
at the end of the day we have a fair and balanced package which is to the mutual benefit of all concerned
