Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-10-Speech-4-012"
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"en.20030410.1.4-012"2
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"Madam President, I am sure all Members of the House are very happy to contribute to the Commissioner's aim of reducing the amount of legislation on the statute books, in this case by reducing some five or six directives to just one. Members of the House have been criticised by the European Environment Bureau for being less than ambitious – in particular for not insisting upon a phasing-out of phosphates across the European Union. We have, it is being said, sold out to the detergent manufacturers. Depending on the eye of the beholder a bath of hot water may be half-full or half-empty; I compare the changes proposed by the rapporteur, with cross-party support, as representing very much the half-full option. They represent a significant step forward, tightening up on requirements for the use of specialist detergents, improving on the proposals for labelling of potential allergens, ensuring that consideration is given to the development of non-animal tests and setting the basis for proposals to eliminate phosphates, taking full account of scientific evidence.
These proposals are realistic and cautiously ambitious, they improve to my mind on the Commission's draft proposals. However, I am very conscious of the need to ensure that we secure cross-party support, if the powers of this House to improve environment legislation are to be brought to bear. We can sometimes make gestures at first reading, securing major amendments for radical reform, but they matter not at all if we cannot get agreement at second reading, if we cannot secure that qualified majority; and to make progress we need to take account both of our ambitions for the environment and of legitimate concerns for industry. On the day after we voted for the enlargement of the European Union, I am very conscious that this is going to be more difficult as time passes. We are at serious risk of having to move at the very slowest pace of the slowest Member, unless we can bring the House together at every opportunity.
My biggest concern at the moment is that we have an increasing number of Member States who are simply failing to comply even with the legislation we already have on the statute books. In the United Kingdom there are currently nine environmental directives which should already have been transposed since the Commissioner came to office, not one of which has yet been put into practice. Ministers are going to the Council of Ministers, signing their names to documents agreed after co-decision and then simply not keeping their word. Playing the system, breaking the spirit of the rules.
The problem therefore is not whether the bath of hot water is half-full or empty, but that too many Member States are not putting the plug into the bath in the first place. That should be the number-one concern, not only of the European Environment Bureau, but also of those who care in this House and in the Commission about ensuring that we move forward together to improve Europe's environment."@en1
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