Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-06-Speech-3-220"
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"en.19991006.7.3-220"2
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"Mr President, I welcome many of the things our Commissioner has been saying and is proposing to do. I ask her with my amendment to do one thing more. We all want to see greenhouse gas emissions reduced and my amendment is not a judgment on energy taxes, but it is seeking to help us make informed decisions on any proposals for such taxes.
What we need to know is the assessed impact on jobs in Europe and the extent to which pollution might simply be exported to low-income countries which can ill afford to cope with it. An example of this: for a leading tomato grower in Britain currently paying GBP 363 000 for its gas and GBP 60 000 for its electricity, the proposed climate change levy in Britain would increase its energy bill by GBP 149 000. That is a staggering 35% increase, an increase which would simply drive that company out of Britain and into some non-EU country, possibly in Eastern Europe, possibly in the developing world. What would then happen is that the European Union would claim to have reduced its pollution, reduced its emissions, but at a cost: firstly European jobs would be lost and secondly the world would not have reduced its pollution levels by one iota: the pollution would simply have been exported.
That in my view would be immoral to low-income countries and it would be insane economics for the working people of Europe.
The European Trade Union Confederation has called on us to make sure that every step – and they do say every step – taken to implement the Kyoto targets is carefully evaluated. They are right. That is what I want. That is what I am asking the Commissioner to do. Please publish your impact assessments on jobs and on the extent to which emissions would be exported. Then we can all take an informed decision."@en1
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