Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-09-27-Speech-2-008-000"
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"en.20110927.3.2-008-000"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I really must thank everyone who, over recent weeks and months, has helped to produce the document on which we are voting in this Chamber today.
I have to say we worked very well and a really constructive debate was developed. The motion for a resolution that we are voting on today is the outcome of a truly joint effort, with contributions from all the political groups and from Parliament as a whole. I believe everyone has come to share very strong feelings on this subject, not least because we have to remember that we are living in a period marked by an exponential increase in disasters.
The figures in all their starkness speak for themselves: the number of disasters in the world has risen fivefold; just think that 78 catastrophic events were recorded in 1975, whereas today, we have nearly 400 disasters every year. Over the past 20 years, disasters have sadly killed 90 000 people and affected more than 29 million, while economic losses have amounted to EUR 211 billion.
We are clearly facing problems on such a scale that they require a more vigorous and effective response and a really strong commitment on our part. We all have images in our minds of the earthquake in Haiti, the floods in Pakistan and what happened in Japan. Europe itself witnesses flash floods and forest fires within its territory every year, and we all remember the ash cloud after the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
There is no need to go any further to demonstrate the importance of the work being done here in Parliament, based on two fundamental principles which are our guiding stars: the principle of solidarity, which is reinforced by the solidarity clause in the Treaty of Lisbon, and the principle of subsidiarity. We are working along these lines.
Past interventions by the European Union have always been generous and effective – I think the tireless work done by Commissioner Georgieva bears witness to that – but today, we need to make a qualitative leap. We must be prepared to make a qualitative leap from
responses to responses that are enhanced through the prior identification of the assets available in the Member States that can be placed at the disposal of the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
Moreover, it is also important to emphasise the crucial role that services such as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES) can play in this qualitative leap and in moving on from information sharing and emergency response to the planning, monitoring and coordination role that we want. I also take this opportunity to mention the concern that exists at what is happening to the budget for these essential new technologies.
We have included the importance of communicating with the public, because the Japanese experience has clearly taught us that one can never do this enough. We are also asking the Commission to come up with a legislative proposal on civil protection as soon as possible."@en1
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