Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-20-Speech-3-037"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2000-09-20"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Measures to be taken following the fuel crisis and the rise in oil prices2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20000920.4.3-037"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2000-09-20-Speech-3-0382
lpv:speaker	lp:Dirk Sterckx2
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 vice-chair; ELDR (1999-09-13--2004-07-19)3 unknown; Vlaamse liberalen en democraten (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation for relations with the United States (1999-09-29--2002-01-14)3 member; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"Madam President, Commissioner, you made it quite plain: we remain vulnerable. Energy is not cheap. It is a scarce commodity. We seem to have forgotten that, once upon a time, we paid as little as USD 10 for a barrel of oil. We did not ask ourselves the questions which we probably should have asked and which we are asking ourselves today. Commissioner, you also mentioned that we have seen prices rise for the past eighteen months. I wonder why the European experts and powers that be did not meet sooner to establish, when prices first started to rise, how things would develop, how this could be prevented from continuing and how we could avoid getting to the point where we are today. Commissioner, you also stated that we should respond as a united front but we now see that every country has caught “the French flu”. There is a lack of internal coherence, both in the reactions to the protests – protests which I can often understand very well – and in defending the currency, as well as a lack of external coherence in our attitude to OPEC. We have to admit that a price of USD 10 per barrel of oil is just as abnormal as one of USD 35 and you are well aware that, while a price of USD 10 may be attractive to ourselves, it is not viable globally. These are facts which we all seem to have forgotten for the time being. I believe we ought not to do this in future. You have listed the main strands in your communication which you published in the first week of September. They are sound, and cover transport policy, energy policy and environmental policy. I hope that, this evening in Luxembourg, you will manage to persuade people to adopt the same line because we need to emerge from this crisis now. We need to ensure that the next crisis is not as deep and can be held off for longer than we might anticipate. At any rate, initiatives should be tabled at European level and a minimum level of cooperation guaranteed in order to help the most needy, as you stated yourself. This is why I believe that a cut in the general tax burden, as proposed by my party in Belgium, is to be preferred to a specific tax burden on fuel. What we must not do, whatever happens, is to say to people that energy could become cheap, as this would be the wrong message altogether."@en1

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