Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-12-Speech-2-055"
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"en.20061212.9.2-055"2
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"Madam President, I, too, would like to thank Mrs Klaß for the outstanding work she has done. When one first comes to the subject, one asks oneself who actually can be opposed to the protection of groundwater; one ought, of course, to immediately answer that question with ‘nobody’, but, as we see, we have among us a number of Members from the United Kingdom who still take the view that these are rules and regulations of which we have no need.
It must, though, be clear to anyone that our primary source of sustenance, on which we depend for our existence more than on anything else, needs to be protected. Perhaps the news has reached even the United Kingdom that groundwater does not stop at national borders, and that is why we have the task of enacting regulations applicable to Europe as a whole. What is being taken here is a first step, and in that respect at any rate, Mrs Breyer has got it right. We must keep on working on this, but let us just remember that we have laid down standard values for pesticides and for nitrates, and the Member States are mandated to specify, subject to their own national circumstances, limit values for ten other pollutants. We have managed, through tough negotiations, to bring in a prohibition of deterioration. All these things are milestones as we journey in the right direction, and it really would be completely wrong to say that Europe is doing nothing in this area.
Perhaps I might also point out that it is now, in fact, possible to use European funds to compensate for the losses in income of which some Members have spoken, and so, in other words, the European Union is helping, by making the necessary funds available, the farmers, some of whom would certainly find implementing this problematic. It is also for the Member States to put in place comparable rules by way of standardised measurement and testing procedures. As I see it, we have taken a very good step in the right direction, but it is only a first step, and we have more work to do. I think it would be fundamentally wrong to demand ‘less Europe’ in this area."@en1
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