Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-30-Speech-3-144"
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"en.20010530.7.3-144"2
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"Council.
Mr President, I would like to comment on what has been said in this debate.
However, it is not just a matter of integrating this approach into the common agricultural policy. The same must be done with the common fisheries policy. The condition of marine biodiversity is in fact much worse than that of biodiversity on land. The marine ecosystem around our coasts is in crisis. If EU citizens could see what we are actually doing to our seabed and sea water and the effects this has on biodiversity, there would probably be an environmental revolution in the EU. It is therefore also important to integrate the environment into the common fisheries policy and to see marine ecosystems as vital elements of the biodiversity we must work to preserve.
Mr Jonckheer also pointed out that the sectoral approach directly opposes environmental policy in the EU. It is exactly this which we will be putting right through sectoral integration. I also agree with Mrs Schörling that this is proceeding too slowly. I therefore hope that, based on the Presidency’s synthesis report, the European Council in Gothenburg will be able to draw up clear guidelines for continued work on sectoral integration. I believe, Mr President, that these comments will suffice.
Several speakers have mentioned economic growth and its impact on the environment. There is a rather outdated view that economic growth always has an adverse impact on the environment. However, it has also been pointed out that poor economic development creates a major risk of damaging the environment.
The term ‘decoupling’, that is, the importance of being able to separate the trends for economic development and those for environmental impact, is becoming increasingly central to environmental policy discussions. This is actually nothing new. We have been working on this for many decades without perhaps using this particular term.
I would put growth in the EU at around 30 percent over the past 10 years. At the same time emissions of greenhouse gases have fallen by 4 percent. This means that for every one million euros of production, emissions of greenhouse gases are approximately 55 percent lower. This shows that decoupling is already taking place. At the same time we must become even more successful and ensure that we achieve more than a marginal reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions of NOx in Sweden per EUR 1 million of production is now down by approximately 60 percent. The equivalent figure for emissions of SOx is around 80 percent. These are two further examples of decoupling. Now we must redouble our efforts, including in areas where we currently see no reduction in environmental impact and where economic growth has been a contributory factor to this.
The issue of subsidies and international costs has also been brought up by several speakers. As I said in my introduction, I regard this as a key issue with regard to environmental policy, now and in the future.
At a global level, it is actually quite amazing that we currently have subsidies which, according to some, amount to 200 billion dollars a year for non-sustainable energy, that is, fossil fuel. This is an incredibly large amount, which shows that instead of internalising the environmental costs, we are actually externalising them and redirecting them. Removing this type of subsidy and focusing on proper internalisation of environmental costs in prices must be a key element of EU and global development.
Biodiversity has also been mentioned here, and this is something close to my heart. I would like to point out that we have major problems with biodiversity here in Europe, something which far too few people are aware of. Something in the order of 55 percent of all species of bird are endangered, as are no less than 45 percent of butterfly species, to mention just two examples.
Our targets cannot simply be met by introducing Natura 2000 areas, although this is an important part of our nature conservation policy. We also need environmental issues to be integrated into the common agricultural policy. Many of the endangered species are dependent on a small-scale agricultural landscape which is currently disappearing. It is vital that we prevent this from being repeated in the new countries which we hope will become members of the EU."@en1
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