Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-03-Speech-1-060"
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"en.20070903.16.1-060"2
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"Mr President, in recent years we have made a sad tradition of the September part-session in Strasbourg as a discussion of natural disasters. There can be no doubt this is an exceptional time in terms of material damage and lives lost, especially after the terrible fires in Greece, but also in other European regions.
First and foremost, we must declare our solidarity with the Greek authorities, with the Greek people as a whole, but most particularly with the families of those who died, who do not always receive the support they deserve.
European citizens, however, are entitled to demand a little more of their institutions: flexible application of the European Solidarity Fund, certainly, as Commissioner Špidla has explained, which has not always been the case, but also some specific decisions.
We must therefore ask the Council what else has to happen before it dawns on it that work is needed to reform an obsolete fund. I feel I must remind the House that the European Commission proposal and amendments by the European Parliament were submitted to it over a year ago, and so my group wishes to ask the Portuguese Presidency to seriously consider calling an extraordinary meeting of the Council to this end.
On another point, although still in relation to the passive attitude of the Council, my group wishes to ask the European Commission to submit specific Community proposals concerning civil protection, along the lines of the Barnier Report.
Mr President, my group has played an active role in the negotiations on a joint resolution, and we support it unreservedly. I am sure that no one will exploit this debate now to meddle in the Greek election campaign because I am sure that we all agree there is nothing more despicable than attempting to extract political gain from human misfortune."@en1
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