Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-26-Speech-3-030"
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"en.20060426.9.3-030"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to begin by paying tribute to the lives lost and the communities hurt in the Chernobyl devastation. We know from the Latvian press that many people are still suffering the consequences, even now. Latvia was not directly affected, but we have 6000 liquidators. Today half of them are invalids and 500 are dead.
Thirdly, there is secondary legislation on information in cases of radiological emergency: a Community system is in place for the early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency. All Member States, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey participate in that mechanism.
Furthermore, all Member States have established on their territory a network of facilities for monitoring the levels of radioactivity in the environment. It was such equipment in the Nordic countries that detected the Chernobyl accident well before it was revealed by the authorities of the Soviet Union. Informing the population covers advance information to people living close to nuclear installations, as well as protection mechanisms to be provided to the population actually affected by such an emergency.
The European Union has provided financial support for the upgrading of the operating conditions of a number of nuclear installations within the European Union. The reactors where sufficient upgrading could not be carried out will be or have been closed down. The staged closure of the remaining reactors in Ignalina, Bohunice and Kozloduy was agreed in the negotiations for accession to the European Union. They will be closed and we will provide financial support for the countries concerned.
Since 1986, the European Union has made significant progress particularly in the fields of safety, radiation protection and emergency preparedness.
The Commission would like to thank Parliament yet again for its support of the EU role in nuclear safeguards, as expressed in the resolution of 15 March 2006 on the Lisbon Strategy. This resolution recalls that the EU possesses globally acknowledged expertise in the area of nuclear energy and notes that this expertise relates, inter alia, to the efficiency and quality of production installations and to decommissioning processes. It is also worth recalling that the Council in June 2004 set up a working party on nuclear safety, which is due to produce a final report at the end of this year.
Parliament is also aware that the Commission has made specific legislative proposals intended to provide the Union with common rules on nuclear safety, safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, and decommissioning funds. Furthermore, the Commission will make every effort in the area of research and development to help to find a sustainable solution to the issue of the radioactive waste.
Once again, I wish to thank Parliament for its support and I thank you very much for your attention.
My personal contact with Chernobyl was very close. On the day of the accident I was kayaking in Ukraine and I heard about it only two days later when one of the locals asked me whether I had heard about the accident at the nuclear power station nearby. My second contact with it was through my brother-in-law, an ordinary man who was called to liquidate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.
On the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, the European Commission joins the European Parliament in a thorough reflection on the consequences of the accident and, in particular, on the lessons learned.
Firstly, since 1991, the European Union has provided important financial assistance to improve nuclear safety in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Kazakhstan, including the consequences at the Chernobyl site itself. To Ukraine alone, the Community has provided more than half a billion euros in assistance to projects relating to nuclear safety, including assistance to the Chernobyl Shelter Fund.
As a measure of continued EU commitment, the Commission has also proposed an instrument for nuclear safety to reinforce it outside the European Union borders for the period 2007-2013, with a proposed budget of EUR 500 million.
For the international community, the Chernobyl accident represented a turning point, raising awareness of the need for rules and common standards to reduce the risk of an accident to a minimum, as well as preparation for immediate reaction in case of a radiological emergency. A number of international conventions signed under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency reflect the response of the international community in the wake of the accident: the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident; the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency; the Convention on Nuclear Safety; the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material; and the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. The European Atomic Energy Community and the Member States are contracting parties to all these conventions.
At European level, I would recall that the chapter in the Euratom Treaty on health and safety provides both for the protection of the health of workers and of the general public against the dangers arising from radiation. The Treaty also obliges Member States and operators to supply the Commission with regular information on installations and nuclear material in their possession.
In addition, secondary legislation reflects the lessons learnt from the Chernobyl tragedy. This includes foodstuffs legislation: soon after the accident, restrictions on certain agricultural imports were adopted and some border controls still apply today. If ever needed, a Community mechanism will allow prompt fixing of the maximum permitted levels of contamination of foodstuffs and feedingstuffs.
Secondly, there is secondary legislation on emergency planning: there is an obligation that the necessary emergency plans must be drawn up at a national and local level, including inside the facilities, and emergency teams must be in place. Member States must cooperate in emergency planning and in responding to an emergency."@en1
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