Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-152"
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"en.20050222.12.2-152"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, both Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and a large number of NGOs believe that the European Union’s Natura 2000 programme is in grave danger. The decisions taken last year by the previous Commission on the financing of this programme were extremely vague, meaning that it is already a foregone conclusion that there will be a major dispute between farmers and those in favour of Natura 2000 within the Committee on Agriculture and among those in charge of the Regional Development Fund.
We therefore believe that Mr Dimas must devote a great deal of energy to finding a simple solution to the problem of how Natura 2000 is to be reinforced in future. What matters is not the level of funding, or even the individual programmes; what matters is that the ideas associated with the Natura 2000 programme are translated into real-life policies. It is for this reason that funding must not be tied up in negotiating structures to such an extent that it disappears when the crucial debates are finally held.
We have used the Habitat Directive for many years to encourage the Member States to designate appropriate sites in their territory, whilst assuring them that funding would be guaranteed. If we were to stop this funding now, or even to take it out of the budgets for agriculture or regional development, it would be a pretty poor show on our part. It would inevitably lead to arguments, and this is why we are asking you today to take proactive measures to prevent this problem. If it turned out at some point in the future that funding were to be taken out of the agriculture or regional development pillars, we would have hundreds of thousands of mayors lined up here to complain, and there would be little hope for the NGOs or for you as Environment Commissioner. There is no need for me to remind you that a strong agricultural lobby exists, to which I, as a farmer, also belong. It is therefore inevitable that disputes will arise.
I should like to encourage you to ensure that your Commission lays down clear rules, and I would be very grateful to you for doing so. I hope that we will be able to adopt this regulation."@en1
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