Mr President, firstly, while I welcome some of the things that have been mentioned by the President-in-Office, may I say that sadly this is not the first time in this Parliament we are having a debate on maritime safety in the wake of a disaster at sea. Neither will it be the first time that this Parliament has highlighted the appalling safety record of the maritime industry.

We cannot carry on accepting disaster after disaster without doing something about it. More lives cannot be lost before governments act to implement the rules laid down by the conventions of the International Maritime Organization. The industry and many governments have played Pontius Pilate for far too long. The seafarers of Europe now demand and deserve action. The Estonia disaster, although outside European Union waters, nevertheless focused the mind of the whole world on the operation of roll-on roll-off ferries. My group has believed for some time that there is a fundamental fault in the design of these ships. The Herald of Free Enterprise highlighted the problem, the Estonia compounded it.

Since 1980, 112 ro-ro ferries have been wrecked, sunk or badly damaged and thousands of lives have been lost. With these statistics surely even the ferry operators can see there is a problem. Or are they still asserting that these ships are totally safe? If so, how can they justify this appalling record? The time has now come for action. Action to fit bulkheads on car-decks, action in fitting sponsons on all ferries, action on inspection of these vessels. The time has also come for operators to put safety before profit. I hope that all the member governments of this Union will act on Parliament's opinion and then together use their considerable influence within the IMO to root out the cancer of indifference and inaction in the present IMO. And I hope they will also work with the Nordic countries in investigating the flawed design of ro-ro ferries. Failure to act will ensure another disaster and more lives lost. Failure to act will be an abdication of your responsibilities to the citizens not only of this Uni

on but to the citizens of the whole world.

(Applause)