Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-303"

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"Mr President, Commissioner, I wish to begin by thanking the rapporteur for his work. I share his view that the proposal is a small step in the right direction. Mr Cox wrote a similar report as long ago as 1999. If the Council had followed his directions, the basic conditions would have been different now. Just as the Commissioner says, the long period required for discussing this issue shows how important it is for us to obtain a sensible decision-making procedure. Today’s environmental problems must be seen in a pan-European perspective. The EU is a unique tool for creating common environmental rules. The EU’s environmental policy must be developed by means of more stringent minimum rules and environmental charges. It must be possible to take decisions on such rules and charges by qualified majority voting. As is well known, this is an extremely sensitive issue. Some of my fellow MEPs visibly shake when EU taxes are mentioned. I nonetheless hope that the Intergovernmental Conference can devise solutions when it comes to energy and environmental taxes, together with a robust decision-making system. The EU’s and the Member States’ task in the energy sphere is to formulate requirements concerning safety and the environment, to check that the requirements are being complied with and to promote research and development in the energy sphere, aimed at replacing fossil-based energy production with environmentally friendly energy sources. We should nonetheless be very careful that, with taxes as a weapon, we do not seriously reduce competition in the energy sphere. A rational energy policy is best promoted through free trade and the free production of energy. The Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party will support most of the amendments."@en1

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