Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-18-Speech-3-109"
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"en.20021218.6.3-109"2
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"Mr President, I said a month ago that this was a European disaster and requested a European response. The Galician citizens – my fellow citizens – who are caught up in a titanic fight against the oil that has arrived on their doorsteps, have been the casual victims and have paid the price for all European citizens. Since day one, therefore I have insisted both here and there on the need to provide a clear and simple European response, as we did for the floods in Germany, which takes account of two aspects: prevention and mitigation.
Should we toughen and change transport legislation? Yes. Should we reprimand ministers? Yes. But we need to do more. We need to explain to the people who are currently collecting oil by hand why there are no resources and assure them that, if this were to happen again, these resources would be available. We need to tell them, at the very least, that we are sorry for the lack of resources and coordination that there have been in addressing this disaster from the very beginning. They are the ones who are enduring this, and their cries for help have reached this Parliament, and we cannot deny this fact.
The Galician, and therefore, European citizens need to feel supported in the long and difficult journey into which the negligence of their own ministers has thrown them. We therefore cannot understand why anyone in this Parliament would be opposed to knowing what has happened, where mistakes have been made and what we must do to ensure that this never happens again.
This is not a disaster of European dimensions: it is a European disaster and we do not want it to be repeated anywhere. If it does happen again, however, we clearly cannot act as we have done here. The pathetic images that have been shown around the world – which have shown what I saw – make it unnecessary, Mr Galeote, for me to give any further explanation.
We Galicians are strong. We always have been, we have always been able to fight against adversity and we shall not let ourselves be beaten by this disaster. What my people in Galicia cannot understand is why, if all of Europe recognises the lesson that we as a people are giving, the PPE-DE Group in this Parliament continues to deny us the opportunity to clarify what has happened, assess the damage and propose emergency and crisis management programmes at European level that could serve all Europeans.
We are not the ones who can answer this question, we compatriots, as Mr Galeote says. Compatriots are not the same thing as accomplices, and we do not want to be accomplices. Do not insult us by asking us for complicity in the decisions of a government that for a whole month tried to minimise this disaster and has been incapable of mobilising the Community institutions. On the other hand, Mrs de Palacio, you should ask the Spanish Government a question. Nobody has been able to use and set in motion the abundant means available to Europe. Why not?"@en1
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