Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-16-Speech-4-035"
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"en.20020516.1.4-035"2
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"Madam President, I too must say to Ms González Álvarez that it was the vile Communist regimes which bandied about the word "democracy" most frequently, and the worst environmental disasters have occurred in Communist countries – just think of Chernobyl – in other words, in states where there is no grasp of either economics or ecology.
Rio was a milestone. Yet here we are today, feeling very depressed because we have nothing to show for it. I ask you this: who else, apart from the European Union, should take the lead role here? Who else has the opportunities, the awareness, and the skills, knowledge and economic scope? Without a strong economy, environmental protection is impossible. Yet Johannesburg will soon be upon us, and we have to face facts: the preparations are way off course.
Let me say a few words about this New York preparatory conference, which took place from 25 March to 5 April. I am told that progress was far too slow and there was far too much bureaucracy. We have not even begun negotiating yet. The forthcoming preparatory conference in Indonesia has now been extended, and will now take place from 24 May to 7 June. If we do not make progress this time, Johannesburg will have failed before we get there.
Let me mention one issue which is very important to my own country, namely mountains. At the preparatory conferences, Switzerland and Austria have called for a separate mountain chapter containing strong commitments, and this demand was endorsed by the European Union. Yet here too, it was impossible to make progress during the preparations. The countries which we represent here have all signed the Alpine Convention. Yet there is absolutely no movement on ratifying the protocols. If we want to have a strong presence at an international summit and demand measures which will benefit our mountains, we must start by doing our homework in our own countries. I ask you all to urge your governments to ratify the relevant protocols of the Alpine Convention as quickly as possible."@en1
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