Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-28-Speech-4-032"
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"en.20041028.3.4-032"2
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".
Mr President, Mr Florenz, ladies and gentlemen, the Commission welcomes the opportunity given to it by Parliament to reiterate the importance of maintaining and protecting the marine environment.
At the plenary session in March of this year, Commissioner Solbes made a statement on behalf of the Commission on the effects of low-frequency active sonar on the marine environment, in which it was pointed out that the EU’s Member States are required by Community law to set up stringent systems for protecting whales in European waters. The Commission did not, however, have at its disposal the information on high-intensity active sonar systems and their potential effects on whales that it would have needed in order to clarify outstanding scientific issues and adopt an unambiguous position.
For that reason, the Commission asked the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea to examine this complex issue scientifically. This was to provide a basis for the description of measures that might prove necessary in the future in order to avoid disturbing whales and in order to guarantee adherence to the provisions of the Habitat Directive.
The scientific study has since been set in motion, and the draft conclusions are expected at the beginning of 2005. The Commission will make the results of this study available to Parliament and to the public. We will consult the Member States, through the Habitat Committee, on the best possible options for protecting whales from sonar systems and other forms of noise pollution, and in these discussions all interested parties will be involved.
Although the Commission is aware of the potential environmental effects of military activities, the fact that the EU possesses no competence in this area means that the Community cannot take any action to regulate the development of new defence technologies. If, in future, we become more involved in the field of defence research, this will of course have a major part to play. Let me reiterate that the study was commissioned in September 2003 and is expected to be available by the end of this year. As the study needs to collate all the available knowledge on the subject, it is a complex task, and, as it has to do with the military sector, this has often not been easy.
We therefore ask you to note that the completion of the study will require some considerable time. I do hope, though – as I have said on behalf of my fellow Commissioners – that the results will be available at the beginning of the coming year and will then provide a sound basis for action."@en1
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