Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-13-Speech-2-361"
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"en.20011113.14.2-361"2
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"Mr President, Mrs Flemming's report builds on the existing water framework directive. My group is happy to support it. If water resources are to be used sustainably, the price of water to users must reflect both the costs of delivery and the costs of subsequent treatment. But when we vote tomorrow, a great deal of attention will be focused on just one aspect of the report, the Spanish hydrological scheme to build 120 dams and transfer vast quantities of water from one river basin to another.
I am not sure that a report about general principles should single out any one Member State for criticism but, having listened over the past few weeks to both sides of the debate, my personal view is that this scheme seems to be the antithesis of the approach laid down in Mrs Flemming's report.
The Commissioner has made very clear in the past her personal opposition to the use of EU structural funds to support projects which are damaging to the environment. So I hope she will watching closely when the Spanish Government comes to the Commission seeking billions of pounds in structural fund support for a project which seems to me to directly contravene the principles if not the letter of the water framework directive, one of the Commission's greatest achievements. I expect the Commission to make it absolutely clear that environmental impact studies must be independent and must consider the entire scheme, not just individual proposals.
This Spanish scheme is set to become a test case of whether the Commission's commitments toward environmental sustainability are matched by a determination to stand up to pressure from vested interests and the governments of Member States. I hope that the Commissioner will do her best to make sure that her colleagues pass that test."@en1
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