Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-03-Speech-1-058"
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"en.20070903.16.1-058"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, my country, Greece, is facing a tragedy. This summer, 75 people lost their lives. About 300 000 hectares of forest were burnt down; we are facing a huge ecological and economic disaster.
The government was caught unawares. It tried to blame this tragedy on an invisible enemy and ‘asymmetrical threats’, implying internal or external terrorist activity. In reality, we are paying for the sins of the present and previous governments. Greece is the only country to have neither a forest register nor a land register. An attempt is being made in Greece to reduce the level of forest protection by revising Article 24 of the Constitution. It is a country of 2 million unauthorised buildings, many in forest areas; villas can easily be built on burnt land and later connected to electricity and water thanks to vote-winning amendments made by governments.
This must change. Unfortunately, no adequate action has been taken to prevent this tragedy. Although the dry, rainless winter and then the heat waves were harbingers of serious fires, inadequate protection was provided. When disaster struck, there was insufficient coordination, and even now, tens of millions of euros approved by the Cohesion Fund for forest protection remain unused. A total of EUR 33 million has been approved since 2000, but to this day, not a single euro has been used.
Greece, a Member State, must do more. But we, as the European Union and the European Parliament, must also do more for our common European forest heritage.
But enough idle talk, Mr Špidla. ‘Let us examine the Barnier proposals’: this is hot air, for you have kept these proposals filed away a very long time. You ordered them; you must implement and promote them. You must allocate more money from the Solidarity Fund and Rural Development Fund to Greece and to the other affected countries immediately and without unnecessary red tape. Finally, a fund should be set up for the protection of European forests and the prevention of fires. Just as you did with the floods, you should examine the possibility of a directive on protection against fire risks.
Furthermore, allow me to make a request on behalf of my group. We need more European involvement to protect forests and the environment. Instead of helping the Americans with rapid-response forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should set up a European rapid-response force to deal with natural disasters.
Abstract discussion on the risk of climate change is not enough. We, the European Union, must do more about it, and this means common policies, more money from the Common Funds, and stricter control of Member States when they contravene European environmental legislation."@en1
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