Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-04-Speech-2-375"
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"en.20060404.26.2-375"2
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"Mr President, I have some really good news: the President of the Commission, Mr Barroso, and the Vice-President, Mr Verheugen, have today promised to withdraw the three extant letters of formal notice concerning fluorinated gases. The Commission will thus be a party to the compromise reached between the Council and Parliament in the conciliation procedure. The undertaking is particularly gratifying because the Commission had adopted a declaration, reserving to itself the right to declare the Austrian and Danish bans on fluorinated gases unlawful. The declaration was a provocation, which we can now put to one side.
I should like to thank Mr Barroso and Mr Verheugen for their personal support in this matter, and I should also like to thank the President of the European Council, Mr Schüssel, who has offered his personal support in relation to a matter that was initially dropped by the Council of Ministers when Austria took over the Presidency. There are also, in fact, reasons for thanking ourselves here in this Chamber, because we voted in favour of the much discussed Amendment 45, which made the victory possible. By means of amendments we shall turn the decision concerning fluorinated gases into a minimal rule in which countries are given permission to go further in protecting our common climate. Three hundred and sixty-seven votes are needed if we elected representatives are to have real influence, and we obtained 370. We therefore owe the Chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Mr Florenz, and the rapporteur, Mrs Doyle a considerable debt of gratitude because they stood firm in their support for minimal rules, even though they were exposed to heavy pressure, including from their own group.
I also wish especially to congratulate those responsible for now creating a clear precedent for our being able to introduce minimal rules, even when the legal base is the internal market’s provisions. We are obtaining a greater number of possible ways of taking account of security, health, the environment, the working environment, consumer protection and animal welfare, and we are moving a step away from regimentation and from what is referred to as total harmonisation. I hope that this will not be an isolated development but, on the contrary, will herald a new direction for European cooperation. People will thank us if, by means of majority decisions, we secure a common level of protection and, at the same time, give countries permission to be pioneers. In this way, everyone will sense that progress has been made. Danes and Austrians will be quite uncomprehending if the Commission makes its efforts to combat climate change a political priority and, at the same time, punishes Denmark and Austria for making a special effort.
Mr Verheugen, Mr Dimas and Mr Barroso would be uncomprehending, too. The Eurocrats in the departments of the Commission have now hopefully been put in their place. We representatives of the people have made a difference, and we can be proud of our joint efforts. The next task must, of course, be that of convincing all the countries that there are technical alternatives, so that we might obtain a common EU ban on fluorinated gases, preferably before 2012 when the Kyoto Agreement is to be renewed in a spirit of consideration for future generations. I hope that Mr Barroso and Mr Verheugen will firmly resist those who are trying to drag them down into the mud."@en1
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