Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-16-Speech-4-024"
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"en.20020516.1.4-024"2
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"Mr President, I have rather mixed feelings about this debate and about the Johannesburg Summit. It is encouraging that the Environmental Summit is in actual fact to take place and that both rapporteurs have done a very good job when it comes to expressing the European Parliament’s misgivings, hopes, proposals and demands prior to the summit. I want to thank both rapporteurs for the sterling work they have done.
I feel disappointed and frustrated, however, about the fact that the world’s leaders do not appear to take the situation in the world seriously. Just a few months before the summit is to be held, the world’s leading politicians have not even said definitely whether or not they intend to be present at the meeting in Johannesburg. The EU’s sustainable development strategy and statement prior to the world summit have also come very late, given that the matter is about our future and concerns everyone. There ought, however, to have been more respect for democratic debate and for the opportunity for civil society to take part in the debate.
I would also point out, as other speakers have already done, that the Spanish Presidency is not represented in this House. That also indicates the lack of respect for this important issue of sustainable development.
Nor do I think that the EU has attached appropriate importance to the Johannesburg World Summit. The Barcelona Summit, in which the EU’s position was to be firmly set out, was also a disappointment. In Johannesburg, the EU must show clearly how it intends to reform, for example, its agricultural and fisheries policies, which have major global consequences, especially for the poor countries. We in the EU must also show that we have a credible sustainable development strategy to enable the world summit to obtain the result that is required if today’s growing environmental crisis is to be averted. The EU must play a pro-active role in this respect. I think the EU countries have a specifically moral and economic responsibility for showing the way to sustainability.
Many seem to rely upon voluntary undertakings by industry and major companies, but these alone will not lead to the pledges of ten years ago being fulfilled. Voluntary undertakings can help, but what is required is for a world environmental organisation within the UN to ensure that human rights and environmental regulations are complied with. The international environmental and human rights conventions must also take precedence over the WTO’s regulations. The situation should not, as at present, be the other way round. This is a policy which must be pursued by ourselves in the EU and by all who take part in the Johannesburg Summit."@en1
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