Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-07-05-Speech-4-016-000"
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"en.20120705.8.4-016-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank both Commissioner Potočnik and Danish Minister Auken warmly, not only for their dedication and their fighting spirit in Rio, but also for the way in which they cooperated with our informal parliamentary delegation.
We had high hopes that Rio+20 would deliver something that we need in this world, but we have to be realistic. The Rio+20 document is a huge disappointment and a huge missed opportunity. What is quite threatening is that the EU was totally isolated in Rio. There were several reasons for this. First of all, the developing world, along with the United States of America, does not want any restrictions on its growth ambitions. Secondly – and I am still not certain whether this is really the case – the EU might have realised too late that the rest of the world considered Rio+20 a social summit instead of a sustainability summit.
However, I am not only pessimistic about Rio. I felt there was a growing awareness that business as usual will not deliver the growth that countries need, and that greening the economy is a necessity. Even the countries that were deliberately trying to get rid of all ambitions in the final outcome were, at the same time, working on the ground, with organisations like the United Nations Environment Programme, to green their own economies. I think that is a very promising development.
Right now, it is important to consider how to move forward. I strongly believe that the EU needs a very pragmatic approach. We have to establish bilateral partnerships with countries that want to green their economy: for example, on trade relations, giving preferential treatment to countries that want to green their economies through our development policy – and it was a good thing that Development Commissioner Piebalgs was present in Rio. This is the type of approach that we need, and I think that, at the multilateral level, the EU can also play a crucial role in pursuit of the sustainable development goals.
In conclusion, the top-down approach did not work. I think it is time for a much stronger bottom-up approach which includes the business community."@en1
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