Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-21-Speech-3-163"
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"en.20100421.7.3-163"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, after Chernobyl, we all understand the nuclear risk. In 2000, however, the second biggest environmental disaster in the history of Europe – perhaps even in the history of the world – was caused by the accident at Baia Mare in Romania, to which numerous members have referred. One hundred thousand cubic metres of water with very high concentrations of cyanide and other heavy metals leaked from a gold mine into the Tisza River and from there into the Danube, affecting Hungary and Serbia, as well as Romania, killing tens of thousands of fish and poisoning the drinking water.
The contamination of the food chain in the areas directly affected was long term. Hungary reported 1 367 tonnes of dead fish. Over 100 persons, mainly children, were poisoned from eating contaminated fish and were treated immediately.
Nonetheless, not only does gold mining involving the use of cyanide solvents continue, not only is it not banned at European level; on the contrary, the investments in question are subsidised by the Member States and the European Union. Mining is continuing or is being planned in Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, while it is banned by law in Hungary and the Czech Republic and by case-law in Germany.
The time when we sacrificed the local environment and our citizens’ health for jobs is long gone. Even the economic viability of this particular activity would collapse if the principle of prevention and the ‘polluter pays’ principle were applied.
Every economic activity is welcome, provided that it is in keeping with environmental protection and protection of our citizens’ health. However, when we use cyanide, we expose both the environment and our citizens’ health to irreparable danger.
Commissioner Malmström, are you in a position to assure us that we shall have adequate and strong legislation and that Baia Mare will not be repeated this time in Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria or Greece? I call on the Commission to prove that it honours the undertakings which it made just two months ago before the European Parliament.
I add my voice to those of the local communities which are the first to suffer the consequences and join in the fight by environmental movements, while calling for an immediate ban on the use of cyanide in gold mining inside the European Union."@en1
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