During the EP Plenary session (03-06/10) in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on the 18th birthday Interrail pass for Europe. Statements by Violeta BULC, Member of the EC in charge of Transport, Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Luigi MORGANO (S&amp;D, IT), Alexander Graf LAMBSDORFF (ALDE, DE), and Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

BULC, Violeta (SI, EC)

MORGANO, Luigi (S&D, IT)

HARMS, Rebecca (Greens/EFA, DE)

LAMBSDORFF, Alexander Graf (ALDE, DE)

single European railway area (T)

18th birthday of Interrail pass for Europe: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Violeta BULC, Member of the EC in charge of Transport, The possible scope of such a scheme must be explored, for instance how can we take into account the fact that not all Member states railways are Interrail members. And could the scheme become at least progressively intermodal and not only limited to rail tickets. Interrail illustrates well the need to work further to address missing links in multimodal and cross-border connections, of course we will have to discuss directly with the rail operators, managing the existing Interrail services, they know best what are the operational costs are for example in terms of capacity and occupancy of trains. We may also consider possible variations to this excellent idea. An attractive option might be to have a lottery open to all or specific categories of young Europeans with significant number winning free tickets.

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), So now there is a momentum behind this idea and we should be working on it, but it also striking who is against this, the Nationalists are against, they are against as they want neighbours not to be seen as friends.

SOUNDBITE (German), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), The Interrail could be complementary: an investment in all young people to experience the continent as a whole. There is also a question where investements can go and it would be much better if people say to spend money on education and training of young people, one thing is not going against the other.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Luigi MORGANO (S&amp;D, IT), This proposal is extremely important in particular if we can promote the training and the knowledge side of it, above all we have to make sure that we provide access to all, and in particular to those 18 year olds from disadvantaged groups.

SOUNDBITE (German), Alexander Graf LAMBSDORFF (ALDE, DE), This proposal is manageable the Commission says, it is going to put forward a proposal to us and this is an excellent thing, there is an enormous support for this at least in Germany, 84 percent of young, 55 percent of the whole population think that it is a good idea as it is an enlightening idea.

SOUNDBITE (German), Rebecca HARMS (Greens/EFA, DE), I think a lot of glossy brochure style projects which cost a lot of money and lots of EU public relation campaigns by the Commission could be usefully replaced by ideas such as this, so you have our full support.