Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-13-Speech-2-588-000"
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"en.20111213.35.2-588-000"2
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"Mr President, actually there is a connection, because if you have a party and drink lots of fruit juices, then you have to do the cleaning up afterwards. So I think there is a direct logical link. That was a debate about helping consumers; this is about saving the world. So it is a very important debate.
The Commission proposal is to remove phosphates from the detergents which we put into domestic washing machines: not controversial; all Member States appear to agree, and the Commission produced a very good draft regulation. Why we want to take out phosphates, I should add, is because, although they act as abrasives within the washing process and help to eliminate the dirt, when they are discharged into water, they cause eutrophication, which leads to the growth of green algae that spreads across lakes and waters and seas, depriving wildlife of oxygen. So we need to remove them; everybody agrees on that.
It came to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and we discussed it and thought it was a good step forward – thank you, Commission, for the proposal – but why not throw in dishwashers as well, as they also use phosphates in their detergents? The committee voted by 48 to 8 to include dishwashers, and we thought: good, we are improving the situation for everybody. But there was a small problem. The Council was taken by surprise by this change and did not agree. Here, I would like just to say a warm word of thanks to all the shadow rapporteurs and the other members of the committee who helped, the committee secretariat and my own assistant – they did a fantastic job working on this and presenting a united front.
So we talked closely to the Polish Presidency, who were also magnificent in their enthusiasm and cooperative spirit. They said that they did not have a majority in the Council so this was very difficult, and so on. The big moment of change – the turning point – came when Denmark had a national election, and the reluctant government of the right – which had been resisting dishwashers – changed to a new government. The new Danish Environment Minister is a Green and immediately sent a signal saying that he was reversing Danish policy. Suddenly, there was a chink of light in the Council position, and Member States started to move towards Parliament’s position, which was extremely pleasing.
I asked to see my own minister in the Member State I know best. He said he had absolutely no time at all to see me. I tried again: same refusal. The third time, I was told I could have half an hour in about six weeks’ time. I finally got to see him and was told it was completely impossible to agree to this, so I retreated, dismayed and disappointed.
Meanwhile, keeping in touch with the Polish Presidency, we found things were moving very satisfactorily towards a majority in the Council, so we embarked on an informal first reading conciliation to try and explore whether we could find grounds for agreement on a single first reading. The Council worked very hard and we reached a final document – which is pretty much the document in front of you here – which recommends that both washing machine and dishwasher detergents be included.
We then waited with trepidation to see what Coreper would actually make of this document we had negotiated and, to our enormous pleasure, the message came back a few weeks ago that Coreper had agreed to Parliament’s position by 25 Member States to 2. To my amazement – and yours, Mr President – our coalition government changed its position (but without telling me), meaning that it was no longer against the proposal. So this was a happy situation.
Colleagues, I want to recommend the position that we have got from Parliament. It is a very good proposal and I hope that everybody can vote for this tomorrow."@en1
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