Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-247"
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"en.20010704.6.3-247"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Madam Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to speak first of all about precisely this issue of whether or not the European Parliament delegation should participate in the European Union’s coordination meetings. I wish to state that I was far from satisfied with the way in which the Secretary of State answered the legitimate questions asked by Caroline Jackson. The European Parliament’s delegation is not asking for privileges. It is asking for its legitimate right to participate actively in the Bonn conference and not simply to play spear-carrier, as we did at the Hague Conference.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, climate change is more than just another environmental dossier. It has become an issue that truly symbolises the international political agenda. If the Kyoto Protocol fails, the interpretation will be clear: States and politicians move rapidly and effectively when it comes to promoting the advantages of globalisation, but they are incapable of reaching agreement on minimising the less pleasant aspects of our social model.
The current situation could not be worse. On the one hand, action is more urgent today than it ever has been and the measures announced recently by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change leave no room for doubt on this matter. On the other hand, it has never been as difficult to take action as it is today: the decision by the United States has dealt a harsh blow to international efforts over the last ten years. These factors, urgency of action, pressure from the public and the withdrawal of the United States make the Bonn Conference critical. It will really be the moment of truth for the Kyoto Protocol. Our position is perfectly clear: it is crucial that we limit climate change and the Kyoto Protocol – and none other – is the most appropriate political instrument for achieving this objective. Let us, therefore, go to Bonn with the aim of concluding an agreement with as many countries as possible on the ‘left overs’ from Kyoto so that the Protocol can be ratified and implemented in 2002. In order for the negotiations to be successful, in particular with Japan and Russia, we will clearly have to be flexible, but in a way that respects the integrity and the spirit of the Protocol.
I should like to say one last word about economic issues. It is true that, in the short term, implementing the Protocol will result in economic costs to European businesses. Nevertheless, these costs, as we read only this week in the Commission’s report, will be much lower than was initially thought. I am, in fact, convinced that in the medium term, the Kyoto Protocol will make the European economy more competitive as a result of the technological transformation that we will achieve earlier than elsewhere in the world."@en1
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