Speech on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Finnish Transport and Logistics - SKAL

Speech on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Finnish Transport and Logistics – SKAL

Helsinki, 19th May 2006 

Hubert Linssen
General Delegate of the IRU Permanent Delegation to the EU

Dear Minister, Dear Mr. President, Dear Colleagues, Dear transport operators, and Dear Friends,

It is a great honour for me and the IRU to be able to participate today in the 70th anniversary celebrations of SKAL.

On behalf of the IRU, our President - Mr. Paul Laeremans, our Secretary General - Mr. Martin Marmy and the whole IRU Membership, allow me, on the occasion of this festive day, to convey our sincere congratulations to the leaders of SKAL and all its Members for their dynamism in promoting and defending our industry.

When one is asked to deliver a speech one is always tempted to look back into the past…which is exactly what I am going to do for a moment. Afterwards I believe it is also necessary to look to the challenges that lie ahead of us.

SKAL has been a Member of the IRU since 1955 – i.e. for more than 50 years now! And in those 50 years our industry has changed dramatically.

1995 brought (together with Sweden and Austria) Finland into the European Union. You were expected to provide fresh and new ideas which included new information technology expertise, your high standards of education, and your promotion of gender equality. The initial joining stage was comparatively painless for the Finnish road haulage and logistics sector as the entire "acquis communautaire" had been implemented in national legislation before. You also achieved some important concessions before accession: you were to retain national dimensions and weight limits for vehicles and there was also the right to introduce modular combinations. The Finnish rigorous transposition of Community law has won the praise of the EU institutions!

In 2000, only 5 years after accession, Finland became President of the EU for the first time. Your Presidency included many extremely important road transport dossiers - some of them have gone through a long legislative process, becoming EU law only recently: Transport pricing (Eurovignette) and driving and rest time rules to name but two. Others have disappeared because some of our "European Friends" did not support them - Driving Bans for example.

SKAL has played a very important and visible role in defending the interests of Finnish transport operators within the European Union. It has invested strongly in lobby work in Brussels and is an example to other Members of the IRU. I know for a fact that the leaders of SKAL have very close relationships with your Finnish (and even French) Members of the European Parliament and with key European Commission officials. Often, when talking to MEPs, I am asked "What do the Finns think about this?”

SKAL never plays alone in that respect and always works closely together with the IRU in trying to achieve our common goal which is to defend the interests of transport operators! A very good example of this is our common approach to "the Eurovignette Directive" where, last year, SKAL joined a lobby campaign in Strasbourg in order to inform Members of the European Parliament of the industry's position. And it worked! It is only by "Working together for a better future" that we achieve success.

Finland now faces its second European Union Presidency in the second half of 2006. Logistics is high on the priority list and its wish to improve the European Union's competitiveness through superior logistics is a theme that the IRU and its Membership can support wholeheartedly. This is why the IRU and the Finnish Members have already talked to your Transport Ministry in January of this year to prepare. A major challenge for you and the Finnish Presidency is to guide but also challenge the Mid-term review of the White Paper - the so called European Transport Policy!

Ladies and Gentlemen - working individually in this maze of European Institutions, as SKAL or as the IRU is totally inefficient and gives us little or no results. That is why the slogan of the IRU "Working together for a better future" is so pertinent and alive. But it is only by "helping me to help you" that the IRU can achieve greatness in its representation of our transport industry.

Let me raise my glass to you and say:

"Hyvää seitsemänkymmentävuotispäivää SKAL ja parasta menestystä kaikille Suomen teiden liikenteenharjoittajille! Kippis!"

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