mr president honourable members i would like to thank the rapporteur madame de veyrac and the shadow rapporteurs very much for their work here and for their constant commitment in supporting the commission in the legislative proposal that has led to this new and very important regulation on air safety in europe
as the rapporteur said it has not been an easy file
on the contrary it contains issues that have required very delicate and sensitive negotiations in order to reach a balance between the prerogatives of independent safety investigations and those of justice authorities between the need on the one hand to conduct investigative work and the need to protect the anonymity of those who are affected by the investigation on the other
we have done this because we want to learn the right lessons from that work and ultimately provide good and modern rules which will help us investigate professionally and prevent future accidents and incidents and which will guarantee a high level of air safety for european citizens
it was therefore so important that both the council and parliament were ready to make the necessary compromises
i would like to thank you all for that
i would also like to underline that the commission shares the assessment of the rapporteur
the agreed text represents a good and fair balance between the different interests involved
of course at the end of the day the biggest winner today is the european passenger
aviation safety and protection of passengers is a priority for the commission and has been the primary concern of all of us around the negotiating table
we should therefore feel proud today
i invite all members of the european parliament to support the compromise text as negotiated by the rapporteur
