Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-01-16-Speech-2-155"
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"en.20010116.9.2-155"2
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"Mr President, first of all I must thank the Commissioner and the Chairman and other colleagues for their words of wisdom. They are very positive and clear commitments to do something about this very serious problem.
But it is not just words we need, it is actions, it is deeds, and we cannot rely on Member States to do this alone. Even if representatives of the Council were here, which they do not appear to be, even if they were prepared to make statements, which they do not appear to be, we would not be able to leave them to do it on their own. We need some kind of watchdog to monitor and ensure the implementation of legislation. Sadly our own Environment Agency does not appear to be up to the job yet. We can but hope.
So what solutions do we have? What can Parliamentarians do? Well, these three reports before Parliament today are a start. They name and shame. They call for fines. They make proposals for further improvement. But, they also make a point which we must take on board here in Parliament. They say essentially that bad legislation should never have been put on the statute book. And that is a lesson that we have to take to heart. Perhaps we have to start to think about doing less but better. We have talked about doing it but seemingly not done so yet. When we put better legislation on the agenda in future, it has to be respected.
Because of the failure of Member States to put into place legislation, typically the PCBs and PCTs legislation, we now have the extremely serious problem of a long-term contamination of our food chain by a persistent toxic chemical. That toxic chemical is slowly but surely accumulating in the human food chain, reaching levels which are already beyond World Health Organisation levels in certain fatty substances, typically butter, and in some cases fatty fish, such as salmon. They are now creeping up the food chain to the point where our children are now starting to ingest amounts of these toxins that are beyond those that are recommended by the World Health Organisation. If we are not prepared to take serious action promptly in future we will see further problems of this kind affecting future generations. We owe it to those future generations to pursue this issue."@en1
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