Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-03-Speech-2-143"
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"en.20020903.6.2-143"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, this summer we have seen a genuine environmental, economic and cultural disaster in Central Europe.
On 14 August, on behalf of the Socialist Group, I expressed our solidarity and the need for the Commission to act, and please allow me to mention the fact that President Prodi and the Commissioners not only put their boots on and walked around in the mud, but that, furthermore, Mr Prodi accepted the invitation from Chancellor Schröder, who took action from the outset to hold that extraordinary Berlin Summit, which I believe was a strong sign of will and action.
Other colleagues of mine will speak more extensively about the situation in Germany, in Austria, in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia and in Hungary. But please allow me, on behalf of the Socialist Group, firstly to express our condolences, our concern for the victims and also our sincerest thanks to all the volunteers who have taken action, not only those who come from the regions in question, but also those from many others. I have had the opportunity to see volunteers in my country from the Canary Islands, which are rather far away, who were on their way to Central Europe to lend a hand wherever necessary. This demonstrates that there is a common spirit amongst us.
I believe that this is the time to point out that we must change our past behaviour. Solidarity must be expressed equally towards everybody, and that is a lesson we must learn from the Azores.
We also learnt a lesson, for example, from the Greek earthquake and that is that joint action by Greeks and Turks allowed past barriers to be overcome. It is at times of difficulty that will must be shown.
With regard to the decision taken by the House – I am glad that it is unanimous and that the Committee on Budgets has acted seriously – I believe that there must be decisive support. Clearly disasters cannot be planned for in the budgets, but what we can do, as we have with ECHO and as we are now going to do with the fund, is try to create a system of safeguards which allows us to act.
I would like to point out, now that the Convention is under way, that the time has come to remove this absurd distinction between obligatory and non-obligatory spending. It appears that we have to pay what goes towards cows and wheat but not what goes towards disasters. I believe that this is an important political lesson. This also applies to the stability pact. The application of the stability pact can be discussed when there is a disaster, but what is not acceptable is that the stability pact is being discussed in countries which have not suffered disasters. I believe we must be very firm about this.
Finally, Mr President, I believe that, in terms of our approach to sustainable development, we must be humble and respectful towards nature, which has a memory and may return to haunt us. We must act more firmly on the way towards a policy of sustainable development and, above all, of strengthening solidarity between us."@en1
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