Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-29-Speech-3-022"
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"en.20001129.6.3-022"2
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". – Madam President, I am sorry that the Commissioner obviously had a very frustrating time at The Hague, but I congratulate her on remaining optimistic. The European Parliament delegation to the talks was equally disappointed at the outcome, although we were not surprised. Certainly we could have foreseen, as she could, the problem that arose over “sinks”.
Those who read the French and British press will realise that there is quite a lot of attention on what seems to have been the breakdown in the relationship between Mrs Voynet, the French minister, and Mr Prescott, the British minister. They were, in a sense, an accident waiting to happen – like the Titanic and the iceberg. Mr Prescott is now holed below the water line and we do not know how long he will remain afloat.
One of the things we feel, at least I feel in a personal capacity, is the trouble is that a Green minister has absolutely no room to negotiate on Green issues. Madam Voynet was bound not to give way to the American point of view. You would not expect any less of her, would you?
My question to the Commissioner is: Does she feel that there is any flexibility likely to arise in the European Union position on “sinks”; secondly, when does she forecast that the talks are likely to resume; and thirdly, was Mr Prescott’s statement to the House of Commons actually true? He said in the House of Commons that the agreement which he had laboriously brokered with all the skills of a Sherman tank would have prevented developed countries from gaining credits from the clean development mechanism for planting forests in developing countries, which sounds rather good. This was felt by many countries, particularly the green groups, to be a huge loophole. The agreement would have placed a ceiling on the use of forest sinks by the United States, Japan and Canada, a ceiling which Europe had been asking for, and strengthen the scientific requirements applied to the domestic sinks.
Given the – surprise – glowing report by Mr Prescott on the deal which he had himself brokered, why was it that not only Madam Voynet but, I believe, and this is my last question to the Commissioner, most of the other environment ministers in Europe all rejected that? It seems from Mr Prescott’s report to his own Parliament that he was making them an offer they could not refuse?
In conclusion I regret that this has happened, but I hope that we will in the end share Mrs Wallström’s optimism and get the kind of agreement on climate change which we need."@en1
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"Chairman of the Committee of the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy"1
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