Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-18-Speech-4-029"
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"en.20060518.4.4-029"2
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"Mr President, the Solidarity Fund was introduced after devastating floods in the summer of 2002. An attempt is now being made to include terrorist attacks in the list of supposedly natural disasters covered by the fund. As usual, there is an ulterior motive at work here: it appears that disaster relief is to be politicised. Mr Berend suggests in his report, in the context of terrorist attacks, that the EU should be able to use the fund in such cases as a political signal of solidarity. Pandemics are also included, presumably to make the proposal acceptable to a public that is worried about things such as bird flu.
It is all a long way from the original intention of the fund. Who, therefore, decides what qualifies for it? Even Mr Berend says that it is incomprehensible that the Commission can make an arbitrary political assessment, thus calling into question the credentials of the institution that has produced this proposal.
Once again, we see the confusion and incompetence of the EU in practice. Communities that have suffered disasters – natural or manmade – have their national governments to step in and assist. Even more likely to come to their aid, in cases of extreme disasters such as the tsunami, is the incredible generosity of the general public. The last thing they need is for that perpetual disaster – the EU – to turn up and make things worse!"@en1
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