Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-15-Speech-1-235"
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"en.20081215.20.1-235"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to be here before you explaining the work carried out by everyone on this own-initiative report. In my view, and in the view of everyone who helped to develop this report, it is clear that we have done our work. I must thank everyone, particularly the shadow rapporteurs from the various political groups who tried so hard to achieve compromises with a future; the regional development staff, who are always ready to help, not least Miguel Tell Cremades and Elisa Daffarra; the staff of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Lila and Petrus, and also the European Commission. The latter, represented as always by the various Directorates-General which such a wide-ranging report involves, constantly and closely monitored our work and made a major effort to ensure a successful outcome. I must also give my sincere thanks to my whole office, particularly Joana Benzinho, on behalf of a more harmonious and structured development for the coastal regions and for tourism in the European Union.
The European Union’s 27 Member States account for more than 89 000 kilometres of coastline. This offers a wide variety of highly specific characteristics which, depending on the location, are marked by cosmopolitanism, such as in the cities of Lisbon, Copenhagen or Stockholm, or by the difficulties of being peripheral or outermost regions, such as the Algarve, Liguria, the Canary Islands or Madeira, which struggle to maintain a connection with the major cities or suffer from accelerated desertification. In one way or another, everyone identifies with the concept of coastline and coastal regions and experiences the advantages and disadvantages associated with them every day.
According to available data, by 2010 approximately 75% of humanity will live in coastal regions. Given the links and relations between them, we define these regions as the first 50 kilometres in a straight line inland from the coastline. These are regions, and not maritime strips. They lack the integrated view which they so desperately need and to which our ancestors also subscribed. It is here where a whole population descends, in search of opportunities and economic synergies and, in many cases, with the sole expectation that these will revolve around tourism. That is why the clear need for a pragmatic and integrated view of the impact of tourism on coastal regions took hold in our minds and led us to start work.
In the current financial crisis in which the impact on the real economy is becoming increasingly difficult to overcome, tourism seems to be a sector with huge potential to be severely affected either directly or indirectly. Those regions which are totally or heavily dependent for their development on tourism are seeing their businesses threatened and are facing the future with uncertainty, particularly as tourism is not currently one of the competences of the European Union. However, integrated measures can and must be adopted, and the spirit imbuing the Treaty of Lisbon reflects this idea. However, waiting for the Treaty to enter into force before acting would be to wait for the time when we can cry over spilt milk.
Tourism as it stands at the moment and the fragile situation of those regions which depend on it require us to act urgently and effectively. The fact that these regions are structurally dependent on tourism as a creator of jobs, albeit often seasonal ones, and an employer of intensive labour cannot be forgotten in a context of pressure on urban areas and unemployment. This report, which we are now putting before you here, was already very opportune and urgent when the Committee on Regional Development decided to prepare it. Now it has become what must be regarded as a priority for the European Commission and for the European Council. We must give priority to the countless initiatives included in this report, together with those already developed by other institutions, which it expressly supports, in line with the measures included in the Commission’s emergency plan. Among these I must highlight the revision of the Globalisation Adjustment Fund, through which the issues associated with this sector and the impact it is suffering at the moment must clearly be tackled.
It is vital to ensure the development of new segments of the economy in these coastal regions, thus ensuring their social and environmental sustainability and promoting real integration among the various sectoral policies, such as the maritime sector, transport, energy, cohesion instruments already on the ground, the new quality product policy included in the revision of the common agricultural policy, as announced in the Health Check report, and new tourism products in these coastal regions, bearing in mind their crucial contribution to the European economy. The adoption of an appropriate holistic view with regard to this policy must become reality as quickly as possible in the European Union.
To conclude, Mr President, only the clear integration of these instruments and rapid and effective action involving all stakeholders on the ground can guarantee that we will have a sustainable coastal tourism sector, with a real future, in the European Union."@en1
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