Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-13-Speech-1-141"
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".
Mr President, I agree with Mr Dimas that we need to do more in order to make the way in which the European Union addresses extensive natural disasters, both those which affect Europe itself, such as floods, drought or fires, and other natural disasters beyond our borders, such as the tsunami or the hurricane in Mississippi and Louisiana, stronger and more effective. What we want, therefore, is to do more and to do better all together. If we succeed and respond to the demand by European citizens for improvements to their safety and quality of life, we can also achieve economies of scale, because a more effective European mechanism can result in savings in the resources of each Member State individually.
I should like to point out that the challenge before us is to set up an effective civil protection mechanism. If we are to succeed in this, we need, apart from what Demosthenes rightly spoke about two and half thousand years ago, for the Council to agree as well. The Council must increase the resources available. The Commission and the Council agree that we also need to be able to find ways of strengthening assistance for addressing emergencies outside the borders of the European Union. Consequently, we also need to finance this facility and, if we make more and better perspicacious investments in strengthening our cooperation now, we can also avoid large losses of human life and painful damage to property which will cost a great deal more to the Union budget to address at a later date.
I should like to thank the shadow rapporteurs from all the political groups for the excellent cooperation which we had within the framework of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and which resulted in my report and certain amendments to the Commission's initial proposal being approved almost unanimously, by 49 votes in favour and just one against.
My amendments, which were adopted by the Committee on the Environment and are included in the report, focus on four main points:
The first point is the change to the legal basis, which will allow the European Parliament to put things in the right framework and, most importantly, not to confine itself to a purely advisory role, but to be involved in the codecision procedure, so that this institution, which is closer to the European citizens, will then also have the facility to exert greater influence on decision-making.
The second change is the inclusion of prevention in the scope of the instrument. It goes without saying that the integrated management of situations caused by natural disasters must include, in addition to preparedness and rapid response measures, investment in prevention. Prevention is one of the pillars for addressing the problem and I am delighted that, on this issue, we have the same perception as both the Commission and the Council.
This also applies to the third point, to the need to extend this instrument and its action to countries outside the European Union, because natural disasters do not recognise borders.
The fourth proposed amendment is to include public health in the scope of the instrument, which is especially important at a time when there is a serious danger of an avian influenza pandemic.
To close, I should like us to use tomorrow's vote to send, with the same assent we had in the Committee on the Environment, a clear message both to the European citizens and to the Council, as we have also done in the past with a series of motions on natural and manmade disasters. This message is necessary, because it will help us to achieve cooperation between the three institutions, so that we can quickly achieve a positive result."@en1
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