Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-22-Speech-2-200"
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"en.20050222.13.2-200"2
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".
Madam President, I wish to begin by thanking you all for your constructive remarks in both the report and during the debate today. The contribution of the European Parliament is very important. Through the close cooperation between Parliament and the Commission we will be able to provide the European Union with an effective and efficient way of addressing the possible consequences on human health of environmental concerns. I wish to comment briefly on your observations and try to answer your questions.
The Commission greatly values Parliament's cooperation and its constructive efforts in this area. In order to make the most of this the Commission will regularly inform the relevant parliamentary committee on the progress made in implementing the Action Plan.
Finally, I would like to underline that by 2007 we will have made significant progress in establishing the information system and we hope to have the first results of the effectiveness of cost efficiency measures to address health problems. At this point we will report back to Parliament in substantive terms on whether existing policies are working and what new policy initiatives will be required.
The gradual setting-up of an integrated environment and health information system, in which human bio-monitoring will play an essential role, is the added value of the Action Plan. It is a long-term and ambitious plan, but this will not prevent us from taking action. Indeed, many actions have already been taken on the major environment and health issues. Just to give you some examples, I wish to draw your attention to clean water and sanitation, which are dealt with through the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, the Drinking Water Directive and the Bathing Water Directive.
Respiratory diseases will be tackled even more through CAFE
the Clean Air for Europe programme. Diseases related to chemical and physical stresses are already addressed through the legislation on pesticides and biocides. The new chemicals policy
REACH
will be an essential cornerstone in this area. We need to bear in mind how far we have come and ensure that we build on existing efforts rather than duplicate them.
There is already a great deal of legislative action forthcoming which will have an impact on the protection of human health. This relates in particular to the thematic strategies of REACH and CAFE. We must continue with our efforts before coming up with additional elements and it is for this reason that the environment and health strategy focuses on preparing the next generation of environmental legislation.
The environment and health strategy contained a specific focus on children and during the stakeholder consultation process to prepare the Action Plan, experts highlighted that concern. Firstly, that parental exposure should be included to cover the unborn child and, secondly, that we should look at adults in order to cover diseases caused by childhood exposure. For these reasons the Action Plan has widened the focus to include adults as well, taking into consideration the various categories of vulnerability.
The precautionary principle is at the core of environment policy and it will continue to be the cornerstone of our action. It will be applied according to the conditions set out in the relevant legislation. The Commission fully agrees with this line. I want to be extremely clear to avoid any possible misunderstanding. The Commission will not use this lack of information in the field of environment and health as an excuse for inaction.
Regarding the financial plan, we very much welcome Parliament's support in its role as budgetary authority for the funding to implement the Action Plan. We are constrained by the existing budgetary initiatives until 2006 and we will make the best use of all available funds.
We are currently making the case within the Commission for a very substantial increase in the amount of research funding devoted to environment and health. Parliament's request for funding of EUR 300 million for 2007-2010 provides us with extremely useful political support.
However, the Member States must also play a role. A European Union version of the United States' National Children's Study, which the Parliament has requested, would cost about EUR 100 million per year. This amounts to a massive increase of our current environment and health funding. We hope to provide as much support as possible at European Union level, but major commitment must also come from the Member States."@en1
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