Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-02-Speech-4-013-000"
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"en.20120202.5.4-013-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the Commissioner for her positive words and for agreeing with us that it is absolutely essential to give consideration to an effective waste policy.
Over the last few years, we have come across many citizens from various Member States in the Committee on Petitions. Some countries, such as Italy, Bulgaria and Romania, still send a great deal of waste to landfill, although, if I am honest, the petitions did not come from those countries alone. It would seem that waste really is a problem that needs to be taken seriously, a problem that has an impact on a large number of citizens. We can see that there is a lack of transparency. Citizens want to know what is happening, how the authorities are dealing with something that is currently seen as a problem but is actually an opportunity. Waste must become an opportunity, rather than a problem, because an opportunity is what it actually is.
You told us that everything is under control and that more attention is going to be paid to this area. Quite honestly, though, we have already asked the Commission on various occasions in Plenary – this is therefore not the first time that we have asked – not just to tell us what needs to happen, but to actually do something.
We have rules, and they are good in the European Union. We make it very clear that there needs to be a plan, that there is a hierarchy and how waste must be handled. Obviously, it is also important for all the planning to be implemented, however – in other words, for there to actually be some action. That is why we are calling for real action, and my colleagues endorse this, for the introduction of a zero tolerance policy, and for subsidy streams to be turned off so that pressure is also brought to bear to take action. Ultimately, we are calling for a Member State to be called to account before the Court of Justice as soon as possible for why nothing has happened, for fines to be imposed whenever applicable.
I am thus asking very clearly for three things. These are also in the report, but I will just recap here in any case.
Firstly, I am calling for a zero tolerance policy.
My second request is for set-up assistance wherever a Member State cannot manage alone. In times of crisis, it is clearly difficult to constantly have to find the people, the resources and the ideas to ultimately handle waste well.
The third thing we need – and this is the most important of all – is real transparency, as that is what the citizens are demanding. Without it, the citizens feel excluded. We need transparency about how waste is handled; in other words, is it toxic, what happens to it, where does it go and is it dealt with lawfully? What do we need to do to ensure that this problem becomes an opportunity, since we need these materials? For goodness’ sake, let us take precisely those regions of Europe that are still having difficulties at this point in time and make them the most modern regions and deal with waste in an entirely new and creative way since, in future, we really will need every bit of plastic."@en1
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