Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-16-Speech-3-211"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20020116.14.3-211"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, we manufacture products, but what do we do with a product when its life cycle comes to an end? The Green Paper is about answering this question from an ecological point of view. So far, in my opinion, we have been giving inadequate answers to this question, with well-known consequences: substantial detriment to the environment by production and the use to which products are put, with associated detriment to the health of workers and consumers.
Rather than carry on with this policy, we should get serious about one that is integrated. In that way, we shall be able to make financial savings and will not need to eliminate environmental damage. For these reasons, too, we need a strategy for the development of more environmentally friendly products and services. The report before us, completed by the amendments adopted in Committee, provides a good framework for a product policy on ecological lines. The Commission proposal for the discussion process in Committee was of little help, though. The statements made in this text were couched in vague terms, there were no evident structures for further action, nor was there any evidence of a coordinated discussion process. I do not think that any entrepreneur or consumer is going to be won over to an environmentally friendly product by such a hotchpotch of proposals.
The Commission must see to it that the statements made in its forthcoming texts are of greater clarity. What is important to my group is that the environmental costs as a whole should be reflected in the prices of products. Tax incentives should also be guaranteed so that disadvantaged consumers can also buy environmentally friendly products.
European product standardisation must be involved to a greater extent, and services should also be made subject to environmental criteria. Another option for the creation of a market for environmentally friendly products would be, for example, the use of economic guidance instruments. We should monitor their use and the effect they have, and it is vitally important that we should ensure that EU environmental legislation is not neutralised.
In view of the unsatisfactory text produced by the Commission, the rapporteur has done a good job, but further action must not be limited to contributions to discussion. We urgently need definite proposals for the promotion of environmentally friendly products. Producers and consumers must be made sensitive to the various aspects of environmental quality. This report is a start, but the real work on its content remains to be done."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples