Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-357"
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"en.20010704.11.3-357"2
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"On behalf of my Group, I welcome the Commission’s report and the rapporteur’s report. The incidents which precipitated the study and the subsequent reports in Spain and in Hungary have made us aware of the problems posed by mines and mine-workings, both old and new.
The potential problems – particularly the problems of water pollution – are cross-boundary problems and therefore worthy of European-wide legislation. After consideration of existing legislation, be it on IPPC, landfill or Seveso, and in each case I have acted as the rapporteur at different stages of development of that legislation, it is clear that none of them can provide a comfortable solution to the range of problems presented by mining operations. So I would concur with the rapporteur that a new piece of legislation – some kind of new initiative – is required to regulate the mining industry in particular.
I would raise two points with the rapporteur. Firstly, old sites do not necessarily need to be cleaned up. Many old sites are literally centuries old and have developed in such a way that they are now sites of scientific interest and contain particular flora and fauna. I would urge that we should consider preserving sites and using sites in that way rather than simply clearing them off the face of the earth at great expense.
Secondly, I would say that classifying mining waste as waste is very difficult when you consider that large amounts of it are simply crushed rock and quite similar to products that you would get from any quarry in the Union. Therefore I would say that we have to look more particularly at processed waste from mines which often contains high levels of toxic chemicals. That does require regulation.
I would say that the amendment from the EPP Group is not particularly helpful, since it tries to reduce the scope of this directive to the mining of metal ores. From my own experience, the first tailings dams I ever saw were in Derbyshire in the north of England, and they were the result of the mining of fluorospa, not a metal as any chemistry teacher will tell you. But they present exactly the same problems as tailings dams resulting from mining operations.
I would recommend a positive vote tomorrow and, I hope, rapid action by the Commission to implement the recommendations."@en1
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