Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-13-Speech-1-039"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040913.4.1-039"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, I must agree with the Commissioner’s view that the problem of fires in the European Union is having dramatic effects from an environmental point of view.
There are 45 000 fires per year in the European Union and they are going to become increasingly frequent, because drought, a structural problem in the European Union, is going to cause increasingly serious environmental problems, and not just in the south of Europe, but in the north as well.
Furthermore, the United Nations’ experts tell us that, as a result of climate change, this problem is going to continue to worsen, and we are faced with a situation in which we have no genuine common policy for combating fires aimed at tackling these 45 000 fires per year in the European Union. We lack measures, resources and money.
I would remind you of Regulation 2158/92, the expiry of which led the European Commission to show that it wanted to put an end to the lines of aid for fighting fires.
When this Parliament debated Forest Focus, it managed to obtain the ridiculous figure of EUR 9 million until 2006 from the European Commission. On the other hand, we have the forestry chapter of the Rural Development Regulation. That Regulation has not worked. I agree with the Commissioner when she talks about EUR 820 million, but this sum is under-utilised. It is badly used because there is no coordination at either inter-regional or inter-State level. The Member States act as they wish and improvise. It is true that the French have sent two aircraft to help fight the fire in Portugal, but in no way was it done in a coordinated fashion. And neither is there any inter-regional coordination.
An example of this is what has happened this year in Spain. There is a region in the north of Spain – Galicia – which contains the greatest area of forest. Ninety-nine per cent of the fires that break out in that autonomous region are brought under control within 24 hours. Forest fires are fought effectively in Galicia, and progress is being made through forest activation plans which are increasing all the time. Its rate of fires is five times less than the average for the Spanish State. Nevertheless, in Andalusia we have seen 42 131 hectares burn because the resources available have not been used. This is a dramatic situation and this should be a good opportunity to put it right. How? By applying a bit of common sense to all this, because, since the European Commission has to present the European forest strategy over the coming months, this must be the opportunity to consider this problem in depth and to implement a forestry policy in the European Union that takes measures for protecting forests from fire seriously and, above all, that helps to coordinate administrations so that, as a minimum and if resources are not increased, the scant instruments available at the moment are used properly and so that the experiences of the Junta de Andalusia and the European Union as a whole this summer never happen again."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples