Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-249"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-07-04"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Bonn Conference on Climate Change2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20010704.6.3-249"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-07-04-Speech-3-2502
lpv:speaker	lp:Chris Davies2
lpv:spoken text	"I would like to start by paying tribute to Commissioner Wallström, the Commissioner for the Environment. I do not think any of the parliamentarians have any doubt at all about her passionate personal commitment towards trying to secure a positive outcome from the talks in Bonn, and I would also like to say a word of thanks to my Liberal colleague, Prime Minister Verhofstadt, for the emphasis he placed this morning on saying that the problem of climate change is the greatest single challenge facing the planet. One thing that this whole issue has brought about – if it was needed – is a great awareness that this is a very small planet upon which we live and that mankind is very capable, through its industrial practices, of changing our environment. Even the United States now recognises this, although they have yet to come up with an alternative in any practical form to the Kyoto Protocol. There are great opportunities for, and advantages in, addressing this problem by using technology which is in the process of being developed or has been developed to change our practices and reduce global warming. This offers great benefits to society, and economic opportunities for those of us who take a lead, but why are we not able to pursue this more effectively? One problem is vested interests – the classic example being the fossil fuel industries; another is weak political leadership by all of us – we are all responsible for this. We back down over taking decisions which will be unpopular in the short term with our electorates. I wish to see harmonised environmental taxation at a European level – the objective being not to raise more money but to change practices and priorities and ensure that industry at the same time is able to compete on a level playing field. We have had the problems – we have experienced the problems with fuel duty in Britain and elsewhere whenever politicians try really to apply taxes which benefit the environment in this way. The odd thing of course, in Britain’s case, is that harmonised energy taxation on fuel duties would also probably reduce our taxes. I have just returned from a visit to Cyprus – one of the accession countries – where I find out that not only is there no fuel duty on the use of petrol but that petrol is actually subsidised. So, my question to the Commission is this: when it comes to practical forms, when it comes to actually dealing with what I hope will be a positive outcome from Bonn, how does the Council pursue harmonised energy taxation at the same time as dealing with enlargement, which makes the possibility of unanimity so much more difficult to achieve if it we were actually to have harmonised environmental taxation of a sort which is worth having."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; PETI (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 substitute; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Liberal Democrat Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; ELDR (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-09-29--2002-01-14)3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"Davies (ELDR )."1

Named graphs describing this resource:

The resource appears as object in 2 triples

Context graph