Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-06-Speech-2-227"
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"en.20050906.32.2-227"2
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"Madam President, I have risen to speak in this debate on amendments to the 2005 budget and the mobilisation of the flexibility instrument because I believe that the proposals contained in the Garriga Polledo and Böge reports will enable the European Union to honour the commitments it has entered into vis-à-vis the countries hit by the tsunami.
I should like to take this opportunity to draw Members’ attention to three problems of a more general nature. Firstly, it is an unfortunate fact that natural disasters of various types, all of which result in enormous human and material losses, are becoming an ever more frequent occurrence. The Asian tsunami, the hurricane in Slovakia, the floods in Austria, Romania and Germany, the fires in Spain and Portugal and the recent disaster in the United States are merely some of the disasters that have happened this year. What this means is that we must set aside significantly more funding in future EU budgets to enable us to provide assistance to countries affected by natural disasters.
Secondly, promises of assistance are easy enough to make, but a great deal more difficult to put into action. A good example of this is the funding for areas suffering the consequences of the Asian tsunami, which is an issue that has already been raised today. The European Union pledged EUR 350 million to this cause, but is still attempting to find sources of funding to meet this commitment, which after all is not excessively high.
Thirdly, I would draw the House’s attention to the overly long procedures that are in place for organising funding to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters. A good example of this is the aid for Slovakia, where a hurricane destroyed large swathes of forest in the Slovak Tatras. The hurricane hit the country in autumn 2004, but it is only now, one year later, that we are sending money to Slovakia to help the country cope with the consequences of this natural disaster.
Such criticisms notwithstanding, I am delighted that the European Union is so actively involved in measures across the globe aimed at overcoming the consequences of natural disasters. I am quite sure that this House’s adoption of the Garriga Polledo and Böge reports, which we are debating today, will help ensure that money is made available more rapidly for such matters."@en1
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