Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-16-Speech-2-313"
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"en.20000516.12.2-313"2
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"Mr President, thank you very much for an interesting and valuable debate. I hope that we can all agree on the need for confidence-building because, even though the conclusion is that this incident did not cause substantial damage or serious risks, we see that the price of the loss of confidence is very high. It is in the interest of all of us to ensure that our citizens have confidence in our safety and security systems.
I am ready to come any time to any committee in Parliament to discuss those issues. I can say that personally I would very much prefer to have Community rules. But we must not give the impression that this would mean higher levels of safety in the European Union, because with the unanimity rule on the decisions on these issues, the end-result could be that we have minimum standard rules which would not live up to the expectations of our citizens. We must be realistic, because we know the discussion and the position and attitude among the Member States: they are not willing to give the European Union more competence in this area. That is also why the Commission's responsibility in this area is restricted to control radioactivity – but no more than that.
We need European rules. However, we must not give the impression that this will be achieved very easily and quickly. I share the view that we ought to discuss it more thoroughly.
In reply to Mrs Banotti's question, this European Nuclear Installation's safety group brings together the power plant operators and nuclear regulators from both Member States and applicant states. It is not a wider forum but they can cooperate in this specific safety group.
It is not the first time that Sellafield has been discussed and we need to look into the safety issues very closely because, you remember, there was an accident in Japan. That was because of lax control and some of the staff thought they could make a mix of their own. So even in highly advanced societies there are serious risks with nuclear and processing techniques.
I should be pleased to come to Parliament at any time to continue this discussion. However, I do not want to give anyone false hopes about what can be achieved very quickly and with the help of Member States. That is also why we have restricted competence."@en1
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