Andrey NOVAKOV

Policy topics Andrey NOVAKOV is active on

What Andrey NOVAKOV has said (23)

• 2024-12-12 “P-002907/2024 Answer given by Mr Tzitzikostas on behalf of the European Commission The provisions to retrofit a ‘smart tachograph version 2’ in vehicles operating in Member States other than their Member State of registration are laid out in Articles 3(4) and 3(4a) of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 1 , and are key to effective and efficient enforcement of the social and market provisions agreed upon by the EU legislator as part of Mobility Package 1. Over the year 2024, the Commission has closely monitored the progress of the retrofit and has engaged with Member States and relevant stakeholders to raise awareness about these deadlines, including through the Committee on Road Transport, established in accordance with Article 42 of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014. The Committee met in this respect on 18 December 2024, and reached a consensus on a harmonised approach with regards to the deadline of 31 December 2024 2 . The Commission believes that sufficient time remains until 18 August 2025 for the second deadline to be fully complied with. 1 Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on tachographs in road transport, repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport, (OJ L 60, 28.2.2014, p. 1). 2 A summary report of the meeting is available in the Comitology Register.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• 2024-11-18 “P-002562/2024 Answer given by Ms Roswall on behalf of the European Commission The case ‘Bulgaria: Motorway through the Kresna Gorge’ (2001/04) was discussed at the 44 th Standing Committee to the Bern Convention on 5 December 2024 1 . The Commission confirmed that in February 2024 an agreement on a Way Forward for the completion of Lot 3.2 was reached with the Bulgarian authorities. This agreement considered the need to ensure compliance with EU environmental law for this project, which still lacks, while making progress on the project, given the vital importance of the motorway located on the European Transport Corridor Baltic – Black Sea – Aegean. According to this agreement, the Bulgarian authorities need to carry out the following actions: - the maintenance of the existing defragmentation facilities on the E79 road and the construction of three new culverts and appropriate fencing, in order to minimise mortality of protected species and maximise ecological connectivity in the gorge; - the construction of the eastern lane, going from Kulata to Sofia outside of the gorge (as included in the G.10.50 alternative); - if the authorities decided that the Sofia to Kulata lane of the Struma Motorway Lot 3.2 should be implemented on the existing E79 road, the implementation will be preceded by an impact assessment in view of the site-specific conservation objectives, which also include ‘improvement’ objectives, and fully addressing the concerns expressed since October 2019 by the Commission. The result of this assessment should be endorsed through an Environmental Impact Assessment/Appropriate Assessment procedure 2 . At the meeting, the authorities confirmed their commitment to proceed in line with this Way Forward and to continue to closely cooperate with stakeholders. 1 https://rm.coe.int/misc-e-44-standing-committee-final-draft/1680b2bbbb 2 https://environment.ec.europa.eu/law-and-governance/environmental-assessments/environmental-impactassessment_en”
  Road transport environmental policy
• 2024-09-19 “– Г-н Председател, жп линията между София и Гюешево е открита на 16 юли 1910 г. Вече 115 години българският влак чака и не може да мине от другата страна на границата. Той не може, защото линия няма. Сигурно се чудите защо Ви занимавам с проблем, който е в регион между две държави, една от които на всичкото отгоре не е част от Европейския съюз. Истината е, че тази жп линия е първообраз на коридор номер 8 от Тирана, през Скопие до София. Неговото отклонение, благодарение на което сега разчитаме за запазване отбранителния капацитет на Европа в тази част и на този фланг. За жалост през последните седмици правителството в Скопие публично обяви, че няма никакво намерение и то след 115 години чакане да построи тази жп линия. От нея зависи нашата обща отбрана. По нея трябва да минат подкрепленията, които да пазят България и Румъния при евентуален конфликт. Призовавам за това да приемем всички възможни действия, по нашите правила, да направим така, че правителството в Северна Македония най-после да довърши този проект и да запазим нашата отбранителна способност в България и Румъния, и въобще в Западните Балкани.”
• “Um, I'd like to start with the following that. I'm not going to speak Greek. I see that most of you put your headphones. That's the. That's the maximum I'm capable at the moment. Uh, I would like to say that this time it's not about parties. Um, here in this room, we have guys who are called Save Your rights, Save Your flight, who are collecting 1 million signatures in order to secure the rights of those who are flying, at least to keep the status quo at the moment. Because, believe it or not, usually we are fighting for something to be improved At the moment, the status quo is the following. Three hours delay, and then, uh. And then you're entitled to get compensation. Council is proposing, um, five hours. Six hours. Pardon me. And four and six hours. And, uh, can you imagine that in five hours and 55 minutes, they solve something and no worries, everything is done. You arrive on time. Six hours is not on time at all. You miss your event. It doesn't matter. Is it happy or sad? But your family affairs and everything could be ruined. So here I have to underline that we took note very carefully. When it comes to extraordinary circumstances, this is not one sided report. We pay attention to what nature could do to our flight, what a technical issue could be outside of the scope of the airline, but still we put humans on the first place.”
  EU policy on aviation safety
• “Thank you chair, I have a long, let's say, a preparation how to describe our mission, who we met, where we were, but I'd like to start with the following: that we met the Prime Minister as the beginning of the conversation and I don't remember, according to my recollection, last time when AMISHIN met the Prime Minister in such a way. I think the last time was in Bulgaria in two thousand nineteen. But I'd like to thank Yatzek Protos for this because he made several calls and we did it and that was, I think, a very fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister which happened in one of the three voivodeships that we met: Lubelski, Podlaski, Varminsko-Mazurski. So all of them bordering either Belarus or Russia or namely Kaliningrad in north. It was, I think, irreplaceable and priceless experience. We visited the border, but the very border, the barb wiring on the border with the dogs and everything. So we saw Belarus just a few meters ahead of us, one closed border, one open border. And I can see that these regions deserve specific funding. They face the consequences of the war directly every day. Truck drivers are not competitive to the foreign truck drivers because they don't reply to and they don't cover the European requirements to drive. They don't pay the same taxes as the Polish ones, so they lose market and they suffer. Polish farmers are suffering because the import of agriculture products is so much cheaper because the foreign producers are not covering the requirements of the European Union for such a product but still they can import them. Those regions are facing the consequences because they accommodate huge number of refugees from the war. And after all, the European Union is saying, good, you're facing the consequences. We told you, respect all the colleagues from Spain and Portugal, I think in the more harder way than Spain and Portugal does. So in my opinion, from everything that we saw, bordering regions of the European Union are deserving to receive special funds, especially when it comes to bordering countries that announce European Union member states enemies. Our phones do not work properly most of the time. We were aware and you know, beware of a possible drone attacks over us. We saw regions where part of the drones last month that were sent from Belarus and Kaliningrad fell. We didn't manage to see the damaged houses and the family houses that has been damaged, you know, from this attack but still we saw people there. And the pity thing is that if we don't invest much, the euroscepticism in those places will grow. It's very easy to blame European Union especially when the European Union is not present there. So we have to visit more often such places. We have to speak human language, not just resolutions and regulations in a way that people will understand us. However, European Union has done a lot there, build harbors, invest in social care projects. I see something that I saw something with the rest of my colleagues that I think it's the first time I see project like this. It was implemented by colleague of us who was a governor before Jassek Protos, a public laundry that is primarily employed by people with disabilities. So they find a decent job, they provide for their families in a more secure environment. So a lot of investments has been done especially in the tourist attraction infrastructure and unfortunately this infrastructure is used mainly for three, four months per year and I think this is a kind of a paradise that could be visited every month of the year. So it was a very timely mission because it's a reality check for us because here the weather is not that good but still the world looks quite good from our windows in the European Parliament. But when you visit things on the ground and see that people are not satisfied by the billions we vote, it means that we have to do something more. It's not enough just to vote billions here and billions there and now during the MFF negotiations negotiating on the national plans. That was the right moment to be there. And again, I would like to thank the whole of the queue. I would say the queue, not the team but the queue that we were presented. We have colleagues from S and D, Glynis and EPP there and it was very, I'm not moaning about, I'm not complaining but we virtually work fourteen to fifteen hours a day and the interpreters and the advisers were right, they were sticking with us, working harder with us, sleepless, eat less but we managed to complete, eat less but we managed to complete the agenda. So again, thank you so much for everything, especially those who helped to, yeah, yeah, if I'm not saying this nobody will say. So we were there, we paid the price. So that was, I'm not saying because of me, you know, I'm capable of no eating and no sleeping quite long but those people, those people who work for less, much less than MEPs, are not on duty sixteen hours a day. So they did it and I'm grateful for your job. Thank you so much. **Dragoş Benea (Romania, S&D) @Chair: Mr Marcos Ros Sempere after Mr Protas. **Marcos Ros Sempere (Spain, S&D): Thank you chair. Thank you Mr Novakov. I will take the floor on behalf of my colleague Sabrina Reb who is not able to be here and I will read some considerations on behalf of her. The delegation of the Committee on Regional Development visited Poland's northeastern border regions along the frontiers with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The purpose was to assess how EU cohesion policy is working on the ground. It became clear that regional solidarity is the foundation of Europe. In rural and border areas, EU funds make a tangible difference, creating jobs, improving infrastructure and offering people new prospects. At the same time, there is concern that increasing centralization of EU funding could weaken local responsibility. To maintain trust in Europe, resources must continue to reach municipalities and counties directly. The visit also highlighted that the geopolitical dimension of the regional policy, investment in the economy, energy independence and education forms part of Europe's long term response to Russian aggression and hybrid threats. Security is not only military, it also grows from economic and social resilience. In conclusion, regional policy strengthens cohesion and stability. It is a visible expression of European solidarity, especially at the Union's outer borders. Thank you. **Dragoş Benea (Romania, S&D) @Chair: Mister Protas.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “Yes. I would like to know. Whether or not there's any sort of or when you're talking about European funds. The country that I know best has got a negative example in one night. 28. Persons were exchanged, people who were removed, people who were responsible for European projects. This wouldn't have happened if these people had actually been elected, which is not the case. It just would have we just would have needed fair elections. And that would have been possible if the people who are in power now were not 100% members of particular parties and were not constantly questioning the use of European funds. So I would like to call upon my colleagues who are here present to do something and to see actually what European tax money is being used for.”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget
• “I was speaking two parts. The first one is the following question to the Court of Auditors. I will read an official position of Ivana Maletic, a member, a contributing member of the European Court of Auditors, which goes as follows. Here are our key messages in simple terms. Will the will we clearly see what EU money achieved? Not sufficiently milestones and targets. Focus on adopting strategies, setting up bodies and signing contracts. We are measuring activity and not effectiveness. Will we know what we exactly paying for? No payments rely on ex-ante estimates. Yet there is no systematic reporting on public expenditure. We would be simpler for SMEs, municipalities, farmers or NGOs know they must still ensure legality and regularity of expenditure. Can the governments freely decide how to use the funds? Much less than it appears. Funds are concentrated by preferred preferred allocations. Social green 35%. Flexibility reserves 25%. Is it accountability strengthened? Not sufficiently so. It's frightening for me. That sounds very alarming. And I would like the rest of the Court of Auditors members to comment on that. And the second part I will do in Bulgarian. So you need your headphones. No chest tube with national. Administrative capacity?”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget
• “Colleagues, I have a mathematical problem. 285 million cars. If they are all electrified tomorrow and we start living in harmony with nature. A question what will happen at 8:00 in the evening when these all these cars are plugged? Well, the answer is no light bulb will be on. We need no bans. But the free market people know how they spend their money. It's one thing to push new technologies. It's completely different to ban others. Thank you.”
  EV charging infrastructure
• “Those who voted for this measure banning internal combustion engines fail to understand what's at stake. There's a majority now to roll back that ban, and I'm very happy about this. Let me be honest. People know far better than we how they should spend their money. They know far better than we do what kind of car they should buy. We haven't banned black and white TV sets in the European Parliament. People nevertheless buy colour sets because they prefer to look at a colour screen. The same thing will happen to the car industry. However, that day has not yet come. I do ask myself why the largest car manufacturer from Germany, just closed its factory in Germany to open one in Mexico. I wonder why they did that. The answer I came to is that it's quite logical, because we now treat people who drive petrol and diesel cars as criminals.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Thank you. Chair. First Commissioner, I would like to congratulate you on hit the ground running at Berlaymont. This is good. As EPP rapporteur on two files for passenger rights. I know that those rights are not negotiable. In the same time, we have to find a balance between the rights of those who travel and to keep our companies compatible without endless responsibilities and payments. So this Dysregulation state in the fridge for ten years. Now the Polish presidency is pushing a lot in that direction. And I see that the European Commission has some, uh, energy to push that that legislation as well. The European Parliament is dedicated. I would like to ask you, what is your personal position on that and what is the timeline you see to conclude, finally, air passenger rights and the omnibus when it comes to all passenger rights. Thank you so much.”
  EU policy on aviation safety
• “Yes. I would like to know. Whether or not there's any sort of or when you're talking about European funds. The country that I know best has got a negative example in one night. 28. Persons were exchanged, people who were removed, people who were responsible for European projects. This wouldn't have happened if these people had actually been elected, which is not the case. It just would have we just would have needed fair elections. And that would have been possible if the people who are in power now were not 100% members of particular parties and were not constantly questioning the use of European funds. So I would like to call upon my colleagues who are here present to do something and to see actually what European tax money is being used for.”
  EU Supervision of the Rule of Law
• “(10:43:09 – 10:48:16): Thank you, Chair. Let me first start with this: I don't remember the last time that I experienced pleasure from what I'm doing here in the Parliament. So I'm grateful that I have the chance to work alongside Karol Ressler and Elsie Katainen, and their contribution is truly remarkable. At the beginning, it was very challenging to all of us since it's something that no one did so far with 3 separate co-rapporteurs from 3 different committees. And I think so far, we proved that it can work, and this is the beauty of the European Parliament. Over the course of our work, we have had dozens of meetings, and I'm not exaggerating. We met over 50 representatives of institutional, non-institutional, NGOs, citizens, all kinds of parties interested and involved in our work. During all those meetings, almost without any exception, we were listening to one thing over and over again: Make sure that this proposal is not going to centralize all the power and the funds in the hands of few people. We listened carefully, and we implemented exactly this. As Carlos said, we introduced a brand new horizontal principle, which is ensuring that the multilevel governance will be part of this fund, of this plan across Europe. It means that if the mayors, if the local authorities, the regional governors, the city councilors are not on board, proven and secure and certified part of the design and implementing of the plan, the plan will be rejected, just like the member state is not following the rule of law principle, exactly the same weight. And I'm proud of this because this policy has been made from mayors to mayors, from regions to the regions, and should remain there. This is their place. We could not ask more from the cohesion policy, more from the European Union, and deliver less resources. This is why we made a major step increasing the funds for this purpose up to €307,000,000,000. We believe this increased by 25%. We'll secure that we walk the walk and not just talk the talk. There is plenty of media interested in this, and I'm sure they deserve to know the truth. We are facing challenges that no one faced before, so we could not decrease the budget and require more from the Union and the institutions and the policy. We believe that a reserve of one quarter of the whole funds is something that is not going to help our regions. We cannot park money and wait to be melted by the inflation instead of being invested in our economies and in our regions. This is why we are proposing a decrease of this reserve fund to 5%. The rest should be invested. It was very challenging to find a common ground between beneficiaries starting from young farmers, true students, entrepreneurs, and mayors. It was quite difficult to strike a balance between north and south, east, west. We've been approached by other most regions, by islands, alpine regions, by coast regions, by border regions with Russia. Each and every region has different needs. And this is why I believe we decided very cleverly not to go to one size fits all solution in this regulation, but to let people decide how they can spend their money. I believe they know better than us how to spend their funds. They know what exactly needs to be covered. And sometimes the point of view on the local level is better than the one here in Brussels. We believe that there is one, let's say, life insurance for the whole cohesion policy. And the whole cohesion policy will be ensured to be vivid and providing results if the European Parliament is on board. It has been proven that the best friend of the taxpayers is European Parliament. So we are those who are elected directly, and we are accountable in front of our voters every single week. This is why we believe that the Parliament should have a final say in this adoption and implementation of the plans in every member state. Thank you so much.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “We didn't step back from the compensation for people with disabilities. We didn't step back for free child seating. So we saw that there is no chance with the current presidency to reach an agreement. Not because they didn't want it, but because of the fact that the council didn't grant any any alternatives and any compromises and any flexibility and mandate to at least partially adopt some of our proposals. I regret that I have to inform you that this Christmas will be with the status quo, and not with a brand new package of rights that every European should cherish, not only within Europe, but flying from and to Europe. But on the positive side, we didn't accept terms that will make the situation worse than it is at the moment, which was the case with the council proposal. So if we have to look at it from the brighter side. I have to say that there is a greater chance for the Parliament to to change the status quo for better on conciliation meetings, which on the best case scenario will start in April and end in July, and a worst case scenario with end Christmas 2026. This is the the situation at the moment. Thank you so much, president.”
  EU policy on disability inclusion & accessibility
• “Gladly. Now we can fly from the most eastern part of the Union, let's say somewhere on the coast of the Black Sea from Varna all the way to Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean. With, let's say, €100 and just an idea. I don't want to take away this opportunity for those who cannot, who cannot afford more expensive tickets. And if we, let's say, provide free luggage for everyone, it means that everyone will pay. So we have to find a way, a balance, not a trolley back, but a personal item. Such a backpack or a purse. Um, this. And finally, I would like to say that I'm quite worried about the position of the council. This is unacceptable, although it's quite legal. We are not able to take such, uh, enormous importance. Legislative package in three months under the time pressure of the council. This is not acceptable. And I will do all my best, along with my colleagues, to react with each and every Minister of Transport of the Union, because this is not something that we are going to expect. We are waiting 11 years of the council and now this is a deliberate action to limit the influence of the Parliament over this package. And this is something that we are not going to let happen. Thank you.”
  Decarbonisation of aviation sector
• “Thank you. Chair. I have mixed feelings. I know that I did my best, and we did our best. And not only our best, but the best possible at all, because the council put us in a very difficult position, increasing the pressure on us with the short deadline and increased majority, which means that we have to be rock solid and in the same time to be able to agree on something which took 11 years to be agreed in the council for four months to make the things even more difficult in these four months. We had the chance to meet only three times for official trialogues and the last trialogue. The council came with the words that we have no more mandates to to move. We don't have a mandate or any flexibility that we can move towards us. So basically, that was the end of the last trialogue. Why mixed feelings and not only disappointment? Because we've managed to protect the Parliament's position. We gained eight more weeks for negotiations. We didn't step back from the initial proposal that the Council has. The Parliament has. And we didn't break under the pressure that the Council imposes on us. We didn't step back from the three hours threshold. We didn't step back from the compensation.”
  EU political integration
• “I was speaking two parts. The first one is the following question to the Court of Auditors. I will read an official position of Ivana Maletic, a member, a contributing member of the European Court of Auditors, which goes as follows. Here are our key messages in simple terms. Will the will we clearly see what EU money achieved? Not sufficiently milestones and targets. Focus on adopting strategies, setting up bodies and signing contracts. We are measuring activity and not effectiveness. Will we know what we exactly paying for? No payments rely on ex-ante estimates. Yet there is no systematic reporting on public expenditure. We would be simpler for SMEs, municipalities, farmers or NGOs know they must still ensure legality and regularity of expenditure. Can the governments freely decide how to use the funds? Much less than it appears. Funds are concentrated by preferred preferred allocations. Social green 35%. Flexibility reserves 25%. Is it accountability strengthened? Not sufficiently so. It's frightening for me. That sounds very alarming. And I would like the rest of the Court of Auditors members to comment on that. And the second part I will do in Bulgarian. So you need your headphones. No chest tube with national. Administrative capacity?”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget
• “Thank you chair. The fact that this budget was presented on the late afternoon, almost on the last working day of the Parliament, is not going to help us solve this issue. And I feel sympathy to you. Just like I hope that Mr. Veto will face mercy tomorrow when everybody understands that the commission, the cohesion policy, just simply receives less than the the current programming period, there is no other words to describe that. And at the moment there is full of farmers who are protesting outside. I don't want to see a square full of mayors protesting for their cohesion policy. So how do you evaluate this? What we have to tell people when we fly back tomorrow to our constituency, why we are decreasing funding for regions. Thank you.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “I'm not I'm not happy about it. This is why it's strengthening us. It doesn't matter which group we are, we are presenting. I'm happy that we managed to find a compromise on the free hand luggage. European Court of Justice decided so. And we are in line with this. This is part of our position as well. Finally, there is some airlines who are making a pressure on the passengers with which kind of cell phone they are going to use, because they are trying to implement a rules in which you are not capable of traveling with paper boarding pass. Do you know what is the reason? Not because they care about your cell phone. The reason is because if you don't have a cell phone that is able to to project and to display a QR code, then you have to pay on the airport and being issued with one. So this time we, I think, find a very good balance between protecting the interest of the business and the companies. But above all, to be sure that no one is going to make jokes with the passengers anymore. Thank you so much.”
  EU policy on aviation safety
• “Thank you. Chair. I'm happy that I can address particular importance not only for the eastern flank of NATO, but for the whole Europe and namely the Black Sea region, because that's still a demarcation line between the conflict and the peaceful continent. And I see that more and more operations are taking place in the Black Sea, and the European Union has already introduced a new strategy, and we're still missing such strategy from NATO. So do you plan to update, uh, your plans regarding the, uh, regarding the the Black Sea region, including, you know, positioning, uh, air to air missiles or, uh, coast defense systems or any types of, of defenses which are going to secure, uh, our coast. Thank you so much.”
  Relations with NATO
• “Madam chair. Mr. Tzitzikostas colleagues. I believe that the new proposals has a key purpose not to make things worse than they are at the moment. I have taken part in many legislative procedures, but this is the first one which makes me breathless. First, because we had to find a balance between the rights of passengers and saving aviation in Europe. If your flight is delayed by three hours, you are entitled to compensation. Now, they say that this period has to be increased to four hours. So I suggest those who support this to accompany me to any EU airport to wait with me for hours while being delayed in attending his child's birthday or another key event. Therefore, this should be a red line. We should not increase the period above which compensation is to be paid. We are talking about 1 trillion. 2 million people are engaged in the aviation sector. We cannot ask of them to work miracles. Therefore, in closing, I would say, colleagues, if someone proposes to use something free of charge. You should bear in mind that probably the product is you. Thank you.”
  EU policy on aviation safety
• “Thank you chair. A few things. First, congratulations on having the guts to mention that rural areas are not only farming areas. We have some representatives here coming from rural areas. They don't grow any cucumbers. On the contrary, they're all investing up their focus, their work, their energy. It's something that improves the quality of living there and not necessarily doing farming. This is one thing another. In the current programming period, we have specific regions like the northern one that's northern most regions in Scandinavia, Finland, Sweden. And this is missing in the current proposal. Do you have any guess an idea? Why is that? And do you know how we can reintroduce, because it's clearly that every region has a specific needs and a specific characteristic that requires a tailor made approach to to those regions. And finally, about the mountainous regions that's completely different than than the needs of any other. Just like the islands have their own needs, mountainous regions that mostly are covered by snow. Most of the time they have specific needs when it comes to infrastructure, healthcare, education, so on and so forth. So how do you react on that? Thank you.”
  Cohesion and rural funding
• “Madam President. Thank you very much. Um, I regret that I wasn't able to to listen to the previous speakers, although I know the opinion of most of them because I have the privilege to work together as a shadow rapporteur on the enforcement and to be a rapporteur on two, six, one. And I'm glad that despite our different political families, we can sit together and actually work very, very well, have a common language when it comes to the amendments. I would like to share my views that I hope we will manage to get on board the follow the money principle in which the passenger doesn't matter. Uh, did he or she buy a ticket from an Intermediary or from the web page of the airline. It will be clear who is responsible if the flights cancel. Who is responsible to reimburse if something goes wrong with the flight? Who is responsible for providing services and further information because of the moment? This is a grey zone in which it's not clear who is responsible for um for the passenger. Um, extraordinary situation. And at the same time, it's very clear when the money has to be taken from from the passenger. This is one thing. Uh, another is that when it comes to, um, additional benefits from passengers on the plane, I think we have to be very careful, because in the past, let's say in the 80s, to fly was a privilege for few, because it was very expensive.”
  EU policy on aviation safety
• “Thank you chair. I have two questions. The first one is regarding the infrastructure and corridor number eight. Since this is a pivotal importance of the security of Eastern Europe and especially the countries close to the conflict in Ukraine, I'd like to know what is your position on that? And could we count on the support of the Polish presidency? That corridor number eight, starting from the port of Durres in Albania, through North Macedonia and Bulgaria to Romania will be a priority. And the second one is regarding tourism. I remember one of the visits to the Croatian city of Sibenik, where the mayor announced that 50% of the economy depends on tourism, and I was impressed how good this is. But actually it's very bad because if you have bad weather or a conflict or a natural disaster, it's gone. So I would like to ask, what is your position on securing this sector which is so vulnerable against, uh, foreign interference and natural disasters? Thank you so much.”
  EU transport infrastructure integration