Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-156"
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"en.20031021.5.2-156"2
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"Madam President, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy proposed a number of amendments to the budget. One main concern was with regard to the resources allocated to the various agencies and institutions that carry out statutory duties on our behalf or provide data and statistical information. We cannot demand that, for example, the European Environment Agency provide environmental indicators to enable us to link common agricultural policy reforms to the achievement of environmental goals if their budget is not adequate.
Last year Parliament voted to allocate resources to help address the continuing health problems in the Republic of Belarus as a direct result of the Chernobyl incident of April 1986. Radiation affects 23% of the territory of Belarus. In the Gomel Oblast, which is contaminated, there are 2 million people, including 500 00 children. Rates of sickness have increased dramatically. For example, the number of children who suffer from thyroid cancer has increased fivefold. Most of the children were not even born at the time of the incident.
In July I visited Belarus. I visited hospitals where they were trying to treat the casualties of the problem. I saw equipment that was 20 years out of date – radiotherapy equipment that was Soviet built and was broken down, with spares unavailable. Even if spares were available the government could not afford to repair them. They do not have access to the iridium sources needed for this equipment to work.
So what have been the priorities of the European Union in the last 12 months in terms of spending? We have spent EUR 180 million on the ridiculous pilgrimage to Strasbourg; we have wasted EUR 60 million on the Committee of the Regions – a talking shop that nobody listens to; EUR 5 million have been nicked by corrupt officials in Eurostat. How much have we spent solving the health problems in Belarus? Not one penny. We are told that the Commission intends to commission a study. That is not good enough. We need to address the problems in a country that is going to be on our borders in July next year."@en1
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