Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-18-Speech-4-022"
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"en.20060518.4.4-022"2
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"Mr President, that 2005 was a year of disasters is something that many scientists attribute to global warming and the greenhouse effect, while others see the cause as lying in the natural cycle of disasters; in any case, the fact is that we are not completely blameless when such calamities occur.
For example, an increasing number of flood plains have been lost in the course of centuries, and experts believe that we in Europe have, by the building of dykes, pretty well exhausted the possibilities of technological protection against flooding, so that we will, in the near future, have to have ever greater recourse to what are termed ‘retention areas’. It would appear that respect for the forces of nature is disappearing altogether. There is – as is well known – increasing settlement and industrialisation in exposed areas, for example on the coastline and in the flatlands of rivers, and so natural disasters, under such circumstances, can be prevented only with great difficulty if at all, but we can make the effort – by means of a solidarity fund such as this one – to alleviate the consequences in so far as possible.
It has to be said, though, that the development and extension of early warning systems is essential in this respect; it is in this area that much remains to be done, and I regard this as an area in which the European Union, in particular, must act."@en1
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