Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-01-Speech-2-265"
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"en.20030701.9.2-265"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, the modification of the directive on packaging is going to have enormous repercussions for the various agents, local councils, collection systems, companies producing materials, the food industry and consumers.
It is clear that we must set quantitative objectives and that these must be ambitious but, at the same time, they must be achievable. We must not forget the fact that in certain Member States the objectives will be more difficult to achieve for historical reasons relating to lack of infrastructure, low population density or consumer habits.
I regret not having been able to reach a full agreement with the rapporteur, but I believe that her work has not been at all easy. In the report which she presented in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy there were many points on which we were in agreement, but Mrs Corbey wanted to go further and, after having reached a compromise, at the last minute she has introduced modifications in Amendments Nos 26 and 27 which have obliged me not to sign them and to vote against them tomorrow.
I understand that in countries such as Germany, Belgium or the Netherlands the collection of waste is cheap and efficient. In these countries there is a uniform distribution of population and no geographical barriers. But it is not logical to impose the same objectives on other Member States which do not have a similar distribution of population. And I am not just talking about my country, Spain, but also Finland, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom and other Member States which are going to have great difficulties fulfilling the objectives agreed in the common position. And this is not a problem of a lack of investment on the part of public administrations.
There are 41 million of us living in Spain, half the population of Germany, in an area of 504 000 km2. The population is distributed around the most mountainous rural environment in the whole of the European Community. Can anyone believe that the collection of waste can be carried out on equal terms? We need a realistic, flexible and, above all, applicable directive. It appears that some people want to gear this directive towards their own laws and impose it on the other Member States. This is neither fair, logical nor equitable.
I believe that the Council’s common position is pretty balanced. I fully support the dates and the quantitative objectives set in it. My only regret is that there are not equal objectives for all materials and that, as a result of economic interests, we have forgotten that there are problems with the functioning of the internal market, which is the real reason for this Directive.
I believe it is very important that we support the various different options for dealing with waste: re-use, recycling and energy recovery. These three options are better than merely depositing waste in dumps.
Finally, we must bear in mind that packaging waste represents a relatively small proportion of all waste generated in the Member States, 3% according to you, Commissioner. So let us be flexible. Industry is making great efforts as are the agents involved."@en1
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