Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-14-Speech-2-187"
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"en.20000314.10.2-187"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mrs Karamanou’s question relates both to the pressing problem posed by the pollution of the Danube, whilst the second part refers more generally to the ongoing threat to the environment in the Community as a whole. As to the disaster that occurred in the Rivers Tisza and Danube, my colleague Mrs Wallström, has announced, as a result of the leakage of cyanide into the Danube, that as of now, the Commission’s inquiry into the potential environmental risks posed by the mining industry, which is already under way, is to include an investigation into the situation in all the candidate countries.
In addition, Community environmental legislation currently in force is to be examined in detail in order to ascertain if it would be desirable to extend it to environmental risks occasioned by the mining industry. As far as the problems of a more general nature are concerned, i.e. those raised in the second part of the question, the Commission is well versed in the report put forward by the European Environmental Agency. This report formed the basis for the overall assessment of the fifth environmental action programme. This assessment has shown that Community policy has enabled us to chalk up positive results in a number of areas recently, for example in the work that is being done to contain acidification, improve water quality and protect the ozone layer.
In other areas, however, the current state of play and the prognosis for the future give great cause for concern. This is largely due to the fact that rapid growth in a number of economic sectors is ruining our endeavours to reduce the impact on the environment. The Commission intends to apply itself to the most serious of these problems in its draft for the sixth environmental action programme. It will base this on the idea that has already been expressed in the overall assessment, i.e. that in principle we should retain the general plan underlying the fifth framework programme, but it must be substantially reinforced.
What we need most of all is for the Member States to devote more energy to implementing Community legislation, and for environmental interests to be integrated into other policy areas more effectively, so as to ensure that economic growth and environmental damage are no longer two sides of the same coin. The Commission awaits the European Parliament’s opinion on its overall assessment and will put forward its proposals for the sixth environmental action programme – to be drawn up on the basis of the positions adopted – by the end of this year."@en1
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