Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-15-Speech-2-205"
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"en.20010515.9.2-205"2
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"Madam President, I am absolutely delighted that Mr Prodi and the Commission are giving priority to sustainable development. Nevertheless, I would like to say that, in this regard, there is an issue which is never discussed and which I believe is a part of European tradition, an issue which we should take into account: man.
We are always talking about the biodiversity of nature, but we do not take account of the fact that, within our programmes in general, there is a lack of projects and working programmes concerning man’s environment: both the natural environment and, above all, the urban environment, where man actually lives.
Sustainability must take account of the fact that, in today’s world, we cannot draw a distinction between the artificial setting and the natural setting. The city is an artificial setting which is just as important as a natural setting. We must bear in mind that we cannot allow our heritage to be destroyed, our cities to be destroyed, the environment to be destroyed, without calculating the consequences for man.
The city is the setting for the greatest injustices, it is the setting which we must take care of in order to prevent marginalisation. Therefore, if we do not introduce the urban environment and the historic environment, which have made up our European identity, we will lose a great part of our personality.
Salvador de Madariaga said that man is the only tree which picks up its roots and walks. Well, I believe this is an important issue which we must take into account; that there is a rootlessness in our society; that we must take account of the settings in which man lives, because that is where the greatest environmental problems take place, as well as the greatest cultural problems.
Therefore, let us look after that environment and bear in mind that, although the biodiversity of ways of life and settings is important, I believe that the European Union is currently moving away to a large extent from sustainability, in the sense that only gigantic projects are given massive funding, as in the case of the URBAN project.
One of the principles of sustainability is to deal with issues at the smallest level. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I ask in order to achieve sustainability."@en1
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