Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-06-14-Speech-3-332"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20000614.12.3-332"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I think that the awful disaster caused by Hurricane Mitch sets three main challenges for European policy. First: we must help with reconstruction in these countries. The Commission document provides a good basis for this, although some of what is written in it has yet to be implemented in practice. I think it is particularly important to use the know-how of European organisations and organisations in Member States for reconstruction and to involve non-governmental organisations and local experts. I do not think that calling for more new posts in the European Commission every time a new challenge arises is always the right response. Perhaps Commission staff could be reassigned.
Secondly: we must give these ill-fated countries greater access to European markets than we have done in the past. It is paradoxical that Nicaragua and Honduras, which were two of the least developed countries even before Hurricane Mitch, fail to qualify for the same treatment as many, many others, such as the ACP countries, which we treat well, and rightly so. I cannot see why Nicaragua and Honduras still fail to qualify for the same treatment. I do not want to quote the perennial example of bananas – the report does that. I support this passage and also what Mr Kreissl-Dörfler has said. I would like to quote the example of sugar. In the case of sugar, which is an important product for Nicaragua, Nicaragua has no access of any importance to European markets. It might help if we were to facilitate its access to the European markets.
The third challenge is that we need to fight the causes of these disasters. I am well aware that we cannot simply say that the increase in greenhouse gases caused Hurricane Mitch. However, there are many scientists who assume that it probably did. We just cannot say for certain. But all the scientific committees agree that the number of disasters such as this will increase significantly if we industrialised counties continue to pump out the greenhouse gases at the same rate. They will of course affect all of us, but they will always affect poor people most, which is why we must at last take more decisive action here."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples