Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-16-Speech-4-095"
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"en.20030116.5.4-095"2
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".
Madam President, on behalf of the Commission I should first like to thank the House for the invitation to make a statement on this matter.
The Commission welcomes this opportunity to emphasise once again how much importance the Community attaches to conservation of the marine environment and the protection of its biodiversity.
This importance has already been highlighted by Parliament and by the Council in the Sixth Community Environment Programme. One of the aims of this programme is to ensure that no further biodiversity is lost after 2010.
The protection and conservation of wild flora and fauna are also two of the objectives defined in the communication from the European Commission on a strategy for the protection and conservation of the marine environment.
Cetaceans are a sensitive part of marine life. They are certainly at risk from a range of human activity, but it is not always easy to establish a link between such activity and the condition of these animals. The Commission is keeping abreast of the current debate on the possible effects of the use of low frequency active sonar on some species of cetaceans. It may well be that intense tones transmitted at low frequency do disturb these creatures. More detailed research is however called for to establish just how seriously the transmissions affect them. Nonetheless, the current uncertainty as to the effects of these transmissions cannot be used as an excuse to avoid taking steps to deal with the matter.
The Commission is of the opinion that extreme caution should be exercised in the use of this technology in view of the possible repercussions for the marine environment. Ideally, the potential repercussions should be assessed in advance.
Allow me to remind you that cetaceans are protected under Directive 92/43, the Habitats Directive. One of the obligations it places on Member States is that the latter should take the necessary measures to prevent these species being disturbed.
For these reasons and following recent events in the Canary Islands, at the Habitats Committee meeting on 20 November the Commission requested the national authorities of Member States where similar incidents may have taken place to provide further details on the subject. We shall now send the Member States a reminder to ensure they respond to our request. All the information received further to this appeal will be forwarded to the House by the Commission.
Furthermore, the Commission is to ask independent scientific bodies such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea to assess the current situation together with available knowledge on the subject. It is hoped that more information on the possible consequences of the use of low frequency active sonar for the marine environment can be obtained. Only when sound scientific information is available will it be possible to decide on the nature of the measures needed to supplement those already in place."@en1
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