Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-07-Speech-4-018"
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"en.20050707.4.4-018"2
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"Mr President, since 1992 LIFE – the Financial Instrument for the Environment – has been the major vehicle of European Community Environment policy. It comprises three funds, for Nature, Environment and Third Countries. The current LIFE III programme is due to finish at the end of 2006 when a new package, LIFE +, will be introduced as part of our new Financial Perspective on which we await a Council decision. However, it is time for this Parliament to make a decision now. Do we want to preserve our natural heritage?
Where our shared environmental heritage is concerned, the financing must fit the policy, not vice versa. It is extremely difficult to quantify in monetary terms the value of our natural boglands, our native species of flora and fauna and natural habitats and public amenities, such as parks and woodlands. Importantly, these are common treasures, enjoyed and owned by the general public. The buck stops nowhere if not with us here in the European Parliament, where, through the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, we are co-legislators with the Council.
We bear equal responsibility for maintaining and strengthening our efforts to prevent biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Without adequate funding for LIFE +, the positive steps to address these problems since the introduction of the current programme in 1992 will be reversed. Important socioeconomic benefits of the programme will also be lost. Up to 125 000 jobs are supported in the EU 15 in nature protection related activities.
This is a growing sector. Mr Bowis has told us about the Scottish example. The Scottish Parliament estimates that landscape tourism contributes EUR 560 million to Scotland’s economy each year, much of this in economically depressed regions. He mentioned the black grouse and the Iberian lynx. Commissioner, can I ask that in seven years’ time the red squirrel be added to that list of biodiversity successes?
It is not just a question of the amount of money. The money must be secure. Without designated, ring-fenced funding specifically earmarked for the environment, we will not achieve our environmental policy objectives. The current ‘integrated approach’ to financing environmental policy being proposed by the Commission, whereby funding will come from rural development funding and structural funds, worries me deeply and I think it simply will not work. Let us be realistic, there will always be something more immediately important than protecting the environment. If properly financed, LIFE + will give us the means to promote our special areas of conservation and thereby promote biodiversity in Europe, which is being lost at an alarming rate."@en1
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