Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-03-Speech-1-069"
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"en.20070903.16.1-069"2
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"Mr President, we all regret what has happened in Greece and the United Kingdom. We stand as one with the victims and hope that situations such as these will not reoccur. Unfortunately, as highlighted by the leader of my group, every year at this time the European Parliament adopts a resolution regretting the natural disasters which have occurred during the parliamentary break and proposing measures which are slow to be taken.
We must progress from words to actions so that this situation is not repeated every year, as is currently happening, with ever greater violence and increasing numbers of victims. All these events lead us to believe that the risks are increasing due to climate change and global warming. Various documents exist which suggest solutions – reference has already been made today to the Barnier report and other documents presented by Parliament and the Commission – not only to improve the effectiveness of the civil protection mechanism at European level, but also to improve resources at national level.
As for the oft-mentioned costs, it must be stressed that, when tragedy occurs, this must be tackled and the property destroyed must be rebuilt, which all costs money. It is clearly more costly to cure than to prevent. Not one of the resolutions adopted by Parliament provides for the creation of maps identifying the areas at risk of fire which must be taken into account in terms of planning and development.
Various penalties must also be introduced, such as not allowing building in burnt areas for 10 or 15 years. The Member States do have the necessary ability. I would remind you that in 2003 and 2005 Portugal also had to tackle devastating fires and fortunately has this year been able to help Greece by sending aircraft to fight the fires there. We must therefore increase coordination at European level and improve the mechanisms at national level.
It would be desirable for the Commission to present a directive on fires, as it has done on flooding.
I must end by wishing Commissioner Dimas a speedy recovery."@en1
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