Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-23-Speech-2-177"
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"en.20011023.7.2-177"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, in my capacity as Chairman of the EP delegation for relations with Central Asia, I shall confine myself to a few comments concerning those budget lines.
What are they about? In the first instance, they are about aid to the partner countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Central Asia is an unstable region and has, since the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan, really been at the epicentre of world politics. We all know that military action on its own will not bring a sustainable solution in the region and that we will need to invest in democratic institutions, in a civil society, in socio-economic and ecological reforms, in the fight against drugs and poverty and in sound education. Mr President-in-Office of the Council, that is the key aim of our efforts in Central Asia. Hence our call to increase that budget line by 5% for commitment appropriations and by 20% for payment appropriations.
Secondly, I should like to ask you to give your attention to the aid for victims of radiation, particularly in the Semipalatinsk region in Kazakhstan. In that region, the Soviet army carried out 607 nuclear arms tests between 1949 and 1999, the bulk of which were above-ground. The Soviets obliged the population to come out of their houses and watch the huge nuclear mushroom. The effects are catastrophic: the incidence of cancer is five times higher than the national average, birth defects are three times more common than the national average, many young men are impotent and twelve-year old girls suffer from breast cancer. Psychological disorders and suicide are very common, and the average life expectancy is around 52. That is the reason why, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, we would like to increase the payment appropriations in budget line B7-524 from EUR 45 million to 60 million.
Mr Vande Lanotte, you are visiting our House and attending the sitting. You said you have come to listen, rather than make any comments, and I can understand that. However, I should nevertheless like to draw your devoted and kind attention to these two important amendments and maybe, upon completion of this 2002 budgetary procedure, we could visit Semipalatinsk together to witness the disastrous effects of the nuclear insanity and to see how European money could be spent in a effective and useful manner. I would be much obliged."@en1
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