Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-11-20-Speech-2-459-000"
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"en.20121120.31.2-459-000"2
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"Madam President, it is a rare opportunity to present some of the proposals together with a fellow-Commissioner. First, I would like to say that I wish, on behalf of the Commission, to thank Mr Sonik and also Ms Tzavela, as well as all the Members who have contributed to the development of this very comprehensive report. I will, of course, concentrate more on the report by Mr Sonik.
The initiative is very timely. As the report recognises, technological advancements have spurred a rapid commercial development of unconventional fossil fuels, especially shale gas, in certain parts of the world. Up to now, most of this has been outside Europe. Inside the European Union resource potentials are still subject to considerable uncertainty. As captured well in your report, public concerns over health and environmental risks have led a number of Member States to consider adapting their national legislation to deal with shale gas projects. Certain Member States have already postponed permitting decisions and some have even adopted bans. It is clear that the future development of shale gas will depend on the extent of public acceptance of fracking. Unless environmental and health risks are addressed in a proper way, and people are convinced that they are, then the development of this industry will not last. We need to face up to this issue and we need to face up to this issue now.
These risks are also the main focus in your report. It has identified the most salient issues calling for close follow-up, including a number of uncertainties or gaps in current EU legislation. Similar issues were also covered in the study which we released in September. I have discussed these issues in depth with my colleagues Günther Oettinger, who is sitting here next to me, and of course also Connie Hedegaard, and the Commission has now included in its work programme for next year, 2013, a new initiative that will strive to provide maximum legal clarity and predictability for market operators and citizens and prevent, reduce and manage climate and environmental risks in line with public expectations and in a harmonised manner across the European Union.
In this respect I am happy to see that our ideas are converging. The Commission’s impact assessment is already looking at options to manage risks and to address regulatory shortcomings. It will take into account the findings from recent studies released by the Commission and the Member States, as well as risk control measures put forward also in your report. We will assess how to prevent surface and sub-surface risks, to adopt monitoring, reporting and transparency requirements and finally to clarify the EU regulatory framework and remove potential obstacles with regard to both exploration and extraction activities.
To conclude, I believe that we can meet the essence of your requests through the actions that we are implementing or planning. We look forward to engaging with Parliament in the follow-up of this truly important initiative. I am also very much looking forward to today’s debate and will try to answer as many of your questions as possible at the end."@en1
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