Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-11-23-Speech-3-634-000"
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"en.20161123.34.3-634-000"2
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"Mr President, our thanks must go to Commissioner Vella for delivering this ambitious action plan against wildlife trafficking.
In preparing my report I must thank my shadow rapporteurs, the Committee on International Trade, the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Development and the Committee on Fisheries for their opinions, the Secretariat of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the policy team of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), and my own staff, who have all worked very hard on this report. Also, thanks to all the members of MEPs4wildlife who have consistently backed the drive to bring this plan forward.
Whilst we have been meeting here today in Strasbourg an estimated 44 more elephants have died: one every 15 minutes. They are poached, killed most brutally to make useless trinkets out of their tusks. But the problem of wildlife trafficking is not just elephant or rhino poaching. Brutal as this is, it is not the whole story.
Wildlife trafficking is the trade in plants, animals, fish, birds and insects collected illegally – taken from the wild and sold in the global market place. That market place is huge. Europe is a market and a transit route for these goods. It is frogs’ legs, caviar or sharks for the catering industry. It is skins, furs and timber for the fashion and furniture industry. It is bones and scales for medicines, and reptiles and birds for pets. The lists go on and on.
The risk of detection is low and the financial rewards attract criminals who launder money, destabilise communities and fund their illegal activities. In short, it is terrorism against nature and it has to be stopped.
My report builds on the Commission’s good action plan by calling for some more ways to reduce wildlife trafficking. First, wildlife trafficking must be given the same priority as drugs, human trafficking and money laundering in Europol’s Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessments. Secondly, while it is illegal in source countries to seize certain species, they have no protection here in the EU, and this is a gap in the law. We should introduce a US-style ‘Lacey Act’ at EU level.
Thirdly, better reporting needs coordination and watching. An EU wildlife trafficking coordinator would ensure this and watch Member States. This works very well with our human trafficking work, and we should repeat it here. Fourthly, until we can prove otherwise, we must introduce a full and immediate ban on the trade, export and re-export of ivory across the whole of the EU, including ‘pre-Convention’ ivory, and rhino horns.
Finally, the punishment must fit the crime. The UN Convention on Serious and Organised Crime sets a minimum of four years’ internment. All Member States should sign up now and implement common standards of justice so these gangs know they will be caught and punished anywhere in the EU. At the end of the day, the fight against wildlife trafficking stands and falls with the EU’s Member States. They must make this plan an urgent priority. The public is with us on this, the politicians now need to act.
This is about fighting crime, but also about protecting the planet and its wondrous gifts for future generations."@en1
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