Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-16-Speech-2-100"
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"en.20010116.7.2-100"2
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".
Mrs de Veyrac's report shows willing and contains certain constructive proposals, which is why the MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece voted in favour of it.
However, we fear that these proposals will fall on deaf ears. We all know that our cultural and natural heritage risks being wiped out by activities which damage or destroy the urban and local fabric in which priceless examples of our cultural and natural heritage are to be found. Excessive and uncontrolled use of land, buildings springing up in historic town centres, in the countryside and in green belts and the lack of any proper measures to protect forests and the natural environment are evidence of our rape of the natural and cultural landscape.
Of course, this is not the random work of a few villains, it is the direct consequence of a policy which commercialises everything and is driven solely by the profit motive. A typical example is the TVX Gold site in Olympiada, in Halkidiki, near Stayira, the birthplace of Aristotle, where the forest has been destroyed and monuments have been put at risk. As if that were not enough, the residents in the area have been dragged through the courts and sentenced for daring to defend their historic and natural environment. We could cite numerous other examples in connection with the destruction inflicted or which it is planned to inflict in order to stage the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
Not only does the European Union do nothing to check and deal with these incidents; on the contrary, it is the main advocate of this policy. It funds projects on archaeological sites which will bury and destroy ancient monuments – witness the case of the Acropolis Museum. The Greek Government is repealing Article 24 of the Constitution as we speak, thereby abolishing what little legislative protection there was for forests and without the slightest objection on the part of the ΕU.
The ΕU has a penchant for waxing lyrical about culture, but while it preaches that cultural heritage is a basic factor in the individual identity and historical development of a society, it has done nothing to get the Elgin marbles returned to the natural and historic site of which they form an integral part, even as a gesture of respect for our cultural and historic heritage and for the need to protect historic monuments. It is also indifferent to the fact that monuments in North Cyprus are being plundered and vandalised by the Turkish occupying forces. Finally, it bears a huge responsibility for the destruction of monuments during the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
This situation cannot be rectified with half measures or wishful thinking or, of course, within the context of a market philosophy. We need to mobilise the masses, all the cultural agencies, all the workers, and we need to impose a different policy, one which respects the working man and the fruits of his creation."@en1
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