Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-202"
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"en.20000217.9.4-202"2
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"Mr President, this disaster at the mine in Romania affects a large hydrogeological area with rivers and watercourses in Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, The fact that 100 000 m3 of cyanide-poisoned water and large quantities of heavy metals have leaked out into the ecosystem is going to have appalling consequences for people in the area for a very long time to come, as well as for animal and plant life, agriculture, the tourist industry, biodiversity and the whole of the ecosystem. It is incomprehensible that an accident of this kind could have happened at all today. Is a substance as poisonous as cyanide really to be used in the mining industry and in the production of metals? The answer, of course, is an emphatic no. There must be no more manufacture or use of cyanide. I assume, therefore, that the EU will take the initiative and see to it that there is a total, worldwide ban on the manufacture and use of that substance. It has already been banned in most EU countries for a long time now. That an accident like this can happen at all is therefore an extremely shameful state of affairs.
I have been informed that the Commissioner for the Environment, Margot Wallström, has travelled from Strasbourg to Romania in order to see for herself, on the spot, what has happened. My Group assumes that Margot Wallström will promise to provide aid to those communities which have been affected: economic aid, support in terms of environmental expertise and help in connection with the massive cleaning-up operation which is required.
This highlights the need for something which we in the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance have been demanding for an extremely long time, namely a rapid reaction force offering protection to civilians in the event of major environmental and industrial catastrophes of this type. It also sheds light upon the low level of environmental requirements in some of the applicant States. We must demand that there should be no exceptions which could jeopardise people’s health and the ecosystems."@en1
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