Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-13-Speech-1-040-000"
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"en.20120213.14.1-040-000"2
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"Mr President, Mr Barroso, ladies and gentlemen, the spell of cold weather is bringing to light the deplorable failures in the way human rights are safeguarded in Europe and within the European Union. The policies of the Member States and of the European Union have failed across the board where this issue is concerned. More than 600 people have died so far during the spell of cold weather that is moving across the whole of Europe. There have been over 80 deaths in Poland, more than 130 in Ukraine, hundreds have died in Russia, and the first victims have also been claimed in Germany. Most of the people who freeze to death or are taken to hospital severely ill from the cold are homeless people; people who, for one reason or another, are living on the streets. They are freezing to death in the open air, under bridges, in parks, in side streets, but increasingly also in unheated homes. With the huge increases in energy costs – for heating oil, for example – they may have been unable to pay their energy bills, or their heating may be antiquated or may have failed completely. All the Member States have an obligation to implement urgent immediate measures to save people who have no protection from the cold. Local and regional authorities need to be supported in their efforts to provide the necessary assistance.
I find it appalling that, at the moment, no one can say exactly how many homeless people there are at present in the European Union; how many people are at risk of freezing to death. Within the European Union there are no common indicators, no statistics clarifying the actual extent of the problem – not even in Germany. We call for a task force to be set up at the European Commission to shed a clear light on those in urgent need, on those who are particularly affected in the individual regions, so that immediate assistance can also be organised. We call for uniform statistics across the EU; indicators that can provide a complete, differentiated picture of the extent of homelessness and tell us the different population groups affected. The Member States must arrange for legislation to be passed to this effect. We also call for EU-wide programmes to be set up for the modernisation of home energy. The possibilities for this under the Structural Funds need to be broadened considerably. We also propose a debate on EU-wide social and ecological minimum standards to combat poverty, housing shortages and energy poverty."@en1
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