Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-12-Speech-1-115"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060612.18.1-115"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, my political group agrees that groundwater constitutes the most vulnerable ecosystem, the most important source of water for human consumption and also a basic part of other ecosystems, such as rivers and lakes.
Over 2/3 of drinking water comes from reserves of groundwater and a great deal of damage has already been done. The quality of groundwater has deteriorated greatly and this deterioration has affected the environment and public health and the economy. More than half of all groundwater, according to specialist scientists, has already been polluted and any fundamental prospect of cleaning it up would be extremely time-consuming and extremely expensive; hence, we need to act promptly, because a great many consumers, our fellow European citizens, have now lost their confidence in tap water, preferring bottled water, which sometimes costs up to one thousand times more. Apart from this, we do not have enough information on the connection between the development of the animal ecosystem and the use of groundwater, which means that we do not know the damage that contamination of the groundwater is doing to the animal ecosystem.
My political group considers that the directive we are debating on the protection of groundwater constitutes the most important legislative tool for maintaining clean groundwater in Europe. We therefore need a strong directive and not a simple declaration of good intentions, as contained in the extremely inadequate common position of the Council. That is why my political group would like to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Klaß, on a job well done, although this does not mean that in the stage of the debate and the procedure up to second reading there were not also points with which we disagreed. However, we have a satisfactory compromise and we have also come very close to the Commission. What is needed is for the Council to agree at long last, because if we leave it to the discretion of the Member States to prevent the contamination of groundwater from dangerous substances, we shall set this issue a long way behind existing legislative texts whereas, on the contrary, we need to push forward, to deal effectively with serious pollution from nitrates and to become more effective in our prevention policy.
My political group therefore wants a legally binding text, which is clear and has strict consequences for those who infringe it, based on prevention and on continual control by the European Commission. To deny this common responsibility towards European citizens and consumers would be a dangerous mistake."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples