Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-05-Speech-1-076"
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"en.20050905.18.1-076"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Europe under water, Europe under fire, this ought not to be inevitable, yet, unfortunately, it is a recurring theme, and every year we are forced to speak about it.
These disasters are mistakenly described as natural disasters. In actual fact, we know that fires are nearly always, in the first place, caused by human beings, whether because they are criminal acts, because they are linked to acts of carelessness or because they are due to political choices that have led us to neglect entire areas. Faced with these disasters, we have to join together and let solidarity prevail. We require a genuine European public security organisation that combines human and material resources so that real European mutual aid can exist. Commissioner, you have made proposals along these lines. Faced with the scale of the disaster in Portugal, I was struck by the lack of resources on the ground. This would suggest that a precise list of everybody’s forces should be drawn up, and it is the responsibility of the Commission to take the initiative for this. We will support it in this area.
We also need to carry out repairs, and in order to do so, we must make use of the Structural Funds or the Cohesion Fund. We must, however, use these for prevention purposes. In this area, awareness campaigns encouraging vigilance and reminding arsonists of the penalties they incur must be implemented, or, as the case may be, strengthened. With regard to forestry policy and agricultural policy, let us acknowledge our mistakes, let us question the decisions that have led to lands being neglected and the spread of scrubland, where it is impossible for our public security forces to intervene effectively. We also need to make better use of plant species to combat fires.
The floods that have descended on Central Europe and Alpine Europe are not inevitable either. They are often due to the outcome of climate change and human activity. We are equipped with instruments and a raft of measures. We simply must call on the Member States to take on their share of the contract and to apply the national implementing measures without delay. The Commission must also present proposals to us for 2012. Without doubt, it is primarily human lives, those of our fire fighters and of our rescue teams, which for us are at stake, not to mention the ecological disaster and the need to regenerate the natural environment. It is with all of the direct or indirect victims in mind that we must intervene. In my constituency, in the Alps, we have had flooding, and in Provence and Corsica there have been fires. It is for this reason that European solidarity must operate as a survival reflex."@en1
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