Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-10-25-Speech-3-263"
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"en.20061025.24.3-263"2
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".
Mr President, Madam President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, the dumping of toxic waste on Côte d’Ivoire is not only scandalous, but also a truly revolting act, and we are, of course, at liberty to do no more than commiserate with the victims and lament the serious injuries caused to people, but if we do not, in the same breath, ask questions as to what lies behind this, that is no more than hypocritical, and you can count me out. That is why I want there to be no doubt about the fact that this is a humanitarian and environmental disaster and scandal. I never cease to be astonished that, while we in this House have introduced the ‘name and shame' principle to apply to others, for example to those engaged in the production of meat, so that, if someone misbehaves, his name is made known and appears in the newspapers, the same does not happen with the Member States of the EU, and that is most remarkable.
The President-in-Office of the Council did, of course, put these things in their proper chronological order, while it was Commissioner Dimas who explained why Europe’s legislation does not work, the actual reason being that the Council is too timid, and when I say that I certainly do not mean the President-in-Office or her country, but I do mean to say that, in matters affecting more than one country, one must – as she has rightly recognised – summon up the nerve to take cross-border action with the aim of prosecuting and punishing offences. If, then, the Commission makes a proposal to that effect, whilst the Council is graciously pleased to cast doubt on the legal basis for it, and both the Commission and this House are subject to it, since the Council, with its blocking minority, does not allow the law to come into effect, that is something that a representative of the people, that is to say one of those who are meant to keep an eye on what governments are doing, cannot but find extremely vexatious. That must not be allowed to happen, and there must be no more timidity from the Council in this matter.
I really do implore you to tell your colleagues that the chairman of the committee is very angry, for complaints after the event are of no avail if we have not done our homework beforehand – which we have, yet you have, so to speak, drawn a line right through it. That is not acceptable. I think the Council would do better in future to concern itself once more with the transposition of European regulations.
I have now been a Member of this House for a very long time, and in that time we have discussed and adopted a very large number of things, but when it comes to actually implementing them, we seem to lose our nerve. I live on the border with a neighbouring country, that loveable place called the Netherlands, and it took us an incredibly long time to come to an agreement as to how we might catch criminals. We have, fortunately, moved on from that, but, where the prosecution of waste crime is concerned, we have not yet emerged from Noah’s Ark, and that, Madam President-in-Office, is something you must not be content with. You need to use the last months of your presidency to get seriously stuck in to supporting the Commissioner and motivating him to do something about this.
There are many areas in which implementation and transposition are lacking. I would very much like to know whether the country in which the toxic waste was dumped actually gave its consent to that being done, for if it did not, this poisonous stuff ought not to have been brought there in the first place. There are so many rules and regulations applicable to this, and all that is needed is for us to implement them with courage and understanding.
It is also worthy of note, by the way, that this is a scandal not only as regards health and the environment, but also in terms of competition. If we do not close this loophole in our own laws and in the Basle Convention, we will thereby be encouraging people who are less than particular about compliance with the law to make the contamination of the environment an exportable commodity, and to do so is hypocrisy, for while we in Europe talk about our high standards, we also open up any number of loopholes that make it possible for this stuff to be exported, and it is Commissioner Dimas – the poor chap – and, with him, the Commission, who has to carry the can for it, even though I have to tell the President-in-Office that the Commission, in this instance, is quite utterly blameless.
Our two institutions were on the right track. We would ask you to act on the suggestions that the Commission and this House have made in this matter, for they are good ones."@en1
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