Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-16-Speech-3-208"
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"en.20020116.14.3-208"2
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".
Mr President, I must confess I was pleased to see you come in, because I was practically under the impression that I was going to be the only person in the Chamber. I would also like to thank the Commissioner, who, after a hard day, is here with us this evening.
Similarly, the Parliament text highlights the importance of an improved and enhanced eco-label, the need to improve European standardisation processes, the need to set parameters and indicators that are simple to apply and similar in all Member States for the lifecycle of products, not forgetting the need not to endanger free competition in the market or in European companies. The text also highlights the crucial role of information, which should be clearer, more truthful and easy to understand.
I think that I have accounted for the majority of amendments tabled in Plenary. I have accepted them and I have only rejected those that I feel do not fit into the framework or context of a Green Paper. In my opinion, this is a good proposal that deserves all our support.
The Green Paper on an integrated product policy should, in my opinion, be the framework for the formulation of a series of guidelines and proposals that will enable both producers and consumers to make full use of the instruments and opportunities offered by the market to be able to make it function in a way that is better adapted to the practice of sustainable development.
This new approach needs to be an improvement on the traditional approach that the European Union has been following up to now, which is essentially based on encouraging environmental improvement in the production sector through standards that establish limits for pollution and also through voluntary instruments that promote the differentiation of companies and products that incorporate environmental improvements.
We have to admit, with regard to these voluntary methods, which have been implemented since the early nineties, such as the co-determination regulation, European eco-audits and the ecolabel, that these have not been as successful as had been hoped and, above all, have not been implemented in a similar fashion in all Member States. Only 3 200 companies throughout Europe have obtained EMAS certification and only 350 products from 70 companies have these European ‘ecolabels’.
In my opinion, the main cause of this situation lies in the rigidity of the system and the still weak consumer demand for ‘green’ products. The Commission, aware of this problem, has presented this Green Paper on integrated product policy, with varying degrees of wisdom and balance. It has been widely discussed in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, but I, naturally, maintain that the Commission has shown considerable dedication to the matter.
Various mechanisms have been proposed with the aim of stimulating the necessary environmental improvement of products and their consumption. The proposal contains a series of suggestions that would facilitate the implementation of different policies and market instruments that go further than those that focus exclusively on the environment and that, I think, will make it easier for a future White Paper to be more detailed and better developed.
We are faced with the need to adopt a decisive approach to stimulate environmental improvement in the EU market, which will allow products to be given prices that are fairer from an environmental point of view, to stimulate demand that is more appropriate and to make the use of instruments for clean production more widespread. Furthermore, I believe that this approach will give greater impetus to the integration of environmental policy in other areas, such as the economic or social areas, and with this we will be better able to fulfil the mandates of Cardiff and Gothenburg.
Though the amendments that Parliament has tabled, it has brought a greater degree of precision and clarity to the Commission proposal with regard to the orientation of the IPP and also to the role of each of the actors – companies, public authorities and consumers – and has given very clear consideration to the issue of shared responsibility without this involving a decrease in producers’ responsibility, but instead taking into account and also putting an emphasis on the responsibility of both public authorities and consumers.
Public authorities, for example, can provide a very important boost for a more environmentally friendly market though public procurement. They can also point out useful market instruments to put the IPP into practice: economic instruments, such as tax incentives, for example."@en1
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