Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-05-Speech-3-375"
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"en.20000705.12.3-375"2
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"Mr President, those of us who survived the conciliation procedure for the water framework directive must be delighted that here we have an issue which is entirely clear-cut and easily understandable. The first issue is that we want equal and effective enforcement of environmental legislation across the European Union and we must all agree to that principle.
The question obviously is why we have not had that before. Why have the Commissioner's predecessors not brought forward proposals before now and why are the proposals now introduced so miserably weak? There is also a question for Member States. What have they been doing signing up to environmental legislation if in reality they do not have the means to check properly that it has been carried out and have no intention of ensuring that it is properly enforced?
I have chemical companies in my constituency in the north-west of England. Some of them, I am sorry to say, discharge polluting materials into air and water. They get inspected. Action is taken. They are forced to clean up their act. They pay the price for that. But they are competing with chemical companies elsewhere in this European Union which are not having to carry out those checks, which are not having to pay the price and they are not able to compete therefore on a level playing field. It is simply unfair.
The second issue is the clear conflict here between the Parliament and the Council. Any student who wants to understand conciliation procedure or codecision procedure has a nice straightforward case study here. We have codecision powers but we have the threat from the Council that if we do not fall into line then they will abandon the whole legislation. Well, they might as well, as Mrs Jackson has said.
The message for the French Presidency is that we want tangible progress. We do not want to see this abandoned. There is room for compromise, presumably over the implementation date. All the institutions in the European Union want the laws enforced properly. It is time to give these warm but rather woolly sentiments some real meaning and action."@en1
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