Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-09-Speech-3-125"
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"en.20021009.9.3-125"2
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"Madam President, my inaugural speech here in this House in 1994 was on the subject of the serious floods which had caused tremendous damage in Athens at that time, and I have spoken about natural disasters on numerous occasions since. On numerous occasions, both I and several of my fellow Members have called for the European Union to take action on the ground when major disaster strikes the Member States of the European Union. Last year, I submitted an amendment during the budgetary procedure for disaster-relief action on the ground by the Union, but it failed to achieve the required majority in the European Parliament. The fact that we are now well on the way to adopting a Solidarity Disaster Fund is of course, excellent news; I just wish we had not waited until after the terrible catastrophe, the human tragedy in Central Europe this summer; but, nonetheless, the European Commission and Mr Barnier personally deserve our congratulations because, we are, at long last, on the way to adopting a Solidarity Fund for natural disasters and, of course, congratulations also go to our rapporteur, Mr Berend, on his report, his hard work and his proposed amendments, which are a step in the right direction and almost all of which were adopted by the Committee on Regional Policy.
I should just like to say, in support of what Mr Barnier and Mr Berend have said, that it is right, first that there should be a broad definition of disasters and, secondly, that the European Commission and Parliament have laid down the right limit for including disasters in this regulation. I really hope the Council will not demonstrate the meanness it appears to be demonstrating on this particular issue and will be as generous as it should. The limit set by the Commission and endorsed by Parliament is the right one, it is not too low and it is not too high and I think that the message which all three institutions need to send out is a message of solidarity, a message that the European Union will act on human suffering. I trust the Council will take this message on board; as for Parliament, I think that, with Mr Berend's report, we are moving in the right direction."@en1
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