Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-07-04-Speech-3-365"
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"en.20010704.12.3-365"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I should almost like to say that the quality of our coastal zones here in Europe forms part of our heritage. Although it is rather late in the evening to talk about coastal zone management in Europe, I believe that it is a subject of particular importance which really needs a legal framework.
Why a legal framework? Quite simply because the development of our coastal zones is sometimes carried out in such a way as to cause the degradation of those zones, despite the fact that, as a fellow Member has pointed out, the habitat of the coastal zones is sometimes a long way away from the major centres of population. This is not the case in every country, however. I come from a country where there are major population centres alongside coastal zones, and those population centres have finally destroyed the quality of the coastal zones, resulting in numerous cases of degradation caused by human activity. This degradation has very serious consequences for biodiversity, for the conservation of species, whether of fauna or of flora, serious consequences for the quality of the landscape, and very serious consequences for water quality. On that point, we have the framework directive on water, the one on bathing water, and you know, especially at this time of the year when the tourists start to invade our beaches, how important the quality of bathing water is. All this is very important, and it is also important for the quality of our fishery resources.
We are aware that it is necessary to have a real political will, on the part of all the countries of the European Union and within the candidate countries, because among those countries which will shortly be joining us within the European Union there are coastal countries and islands which are facing the same problems, the problems that arise between economic development and the protection of our coastal zones. Economic development and protection are not actually opposed to one another, but there has to be a real desire to develop carefully, at the same time fully respecting the need to protect the landscape, biodiversity and so on.
This will certainly require a legal framework. On that point I agree with other Members. However, we must have a legal framework which respects the disparities between our countries, because the coasts of the Scandinavian countries do not have the same problems as those of the countries of southern Europe, whether that means France, Spain, Italy or Greece. We must give a little more responsibility to local authorities and ask each State to set up a legal framework which is appropriate to the regional and local scale. In France, a coastline conservation authority was set up 25 years ago. It has resources to acquire coastal zones which have to be protected, and resources to ensure that, afterwards, land-use plans comply with legal regulations.
This is what we should be doing. I believe that our coastal zones represent environmental and economic wealth which we absolutely must protect in the spirit of a sustainable development policy."@en1
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