Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-132"
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"en.20101006.12.3-132"2
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"Madam President, first of all, after hearing everything that the honourable Members of Parliament have said, I should say thank you because I think that the messages and the awareness which they are sharing, not only with me but, I hope, sharing with the whole European public, are more than clear.
The next question is something which we will also need to discuss in the future, and how to deal with it is also closely connected with answering some other questions. You know that there were two Rio conventions. One was for climate change, the other was for biodiversity, and there was also the separate issue of deforestation, an important one.
Increasingly, they are separate and they are developing in parallel; we are increasingly understanding that we should start to reconnect them. Many of the issues about mitigation and adaption in climate change have to do with biodiversity. Red Plus is as much for climate change as for dealing with biodiversity. So let us also prioritise the questions of biodiversity when we set the priorities on how we will use the money which is committed to Red Plus activities. And, when we talk about Millennium Development Goals, it is the same story. I met and talked with Helen Clark in New York about how we can cooperate better between the Commission and the UNDP in the future to ensure that these issues are more interconnected.
The next issue which some of you underlined, and which I think is the basis of all the issues, is the integration of biodiversity, the mainstreaming of biodiversity in other policies. I fully share the view that if we want to talk about the CAP, the fisheries policy, cohesion and other policies, we have to take that angle into account, too. When we talk about the common agricultural policy – which will soon be on your table, you will soon be discussing it – I think we should develop more the concept of the public good. I believe that farmers should be partially repaid for what they do for us: they are providing food and we are grateful for that, but we should also be grateful to them for keeping up biodiversity. This is an important debate which lies ahead of us.
Nagoya/Cancún are pretty much connected stories. It is not only about biodiversity; it is not only about climate change; it is also about the success of multilateralism and governance globally. So it is very important that we achieve success there. All your calls for us to speak with one voice are well heard. We are doing everything possible to make this true in reality and here, I would like to thank the Belgian Presidency for having a very constructive stance on that.
The next thing which I would like to mention, and with this I am almost coming to an end, is a remark on euros and dollars. I took it positively but I am a bit afraid that, when we talk about biodiversity and international help, we will talk more about euros than dollars.
So, finally, we have to come away from Cancún with something which is a success, which we can consider a success, and which will be connected with solutions, because there is simply too much at stake. We have responsibility, but I think it is fair to say others also have responsibility. But having Parliament firmly behind us is really helpful.
I should start by saying that we should hide nothing. We have failed in delivering 2010 biodiversity targets and we are responsible for that and we should do better.
There are basically two lines on which we should and can act. One is our European line, the other is the international Nagoya line, about which you had more to say. But soon, after Nagoya, we will also come with the proposal for the European Union strategy on how to deal with this serious question and then, of course, many of the matters which you today underlined will have to be addressed. It will have to include a baseline, which we currently, finally, have. It will have to have measurable targets, not a lot, but a few that are the closest to something we would like to achieve: the best proxies for what we would like to pursue. Why a few? Because this has to be fundamentally understood, so that we can share the understanding of biodiversity.
We have done quite a lot in Europe up to now. I am very cautious when we talk about implementation of Natura 2000. I think that Natura 2000 will still give some advantages in the future but, when we talk about our strategy, I think we have to be ambitious, as we are when we talk about when we are going out, when we talk about international appearances.
Many of you mentioned financing. I am not underestimating the question of financing, but do not fix your debate only on financing. It is much more than just financing and much more than just fresh money for biodiversity. It is about environmentally harmful subsidies. It is also about private financing. It is about many of the things which you in this House have adopted.
Illegal logging is a typical example of how we can really help, and finance even, the countries which are exporting timber, also in Europe. I think it is extremely important that we understand that.
As some of you mentioned, it is truly and fundamentally a moral and ethical question but, for those who do not understand that, it is becoming more than obvious that it is an issue of our quality of life and an issue of our economic success. It is important that this is understood too, because this was a turning point in the climate change debate, if you remember.
I think it is important also that governments, not only in Europe, also our partners around the world, understand very well how important it is that they also engage their priorities in following the things that we are discussing in this House today.
The next question which I would like to mention is access and benefit sharing (ABS). For me, after sitting in New York discussing with practically all our partners, ABS will be an important, if not the breakthrough, issue in Nagoya. So we should do our utmost to ensure there is a breakthrough there. Of course, you can make a difference, but it is not only about you and, after all the discussions which we have had with the Member States recently, I can confirm that there is a strong willingness on the part of the Member States to have a breakthrough on that point."@en1
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