Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-12-Speech-1-165"
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"en.20060612.20.1-165"2
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"Mr President, the document we are discussing today is undoubtedly necessary, as it addresses the issue of assessing the threat of flooding and flood management. This is all the more important because floods are and will continue to be the most frequent natural disaster due to climate change, and also because of the possibility of flooding as a result of neighbouring countries releasing water from their reservoirs. A belated reaction, or no reaction, may lead to swollen rivers overflowing and causing an environmental risk and material losses, and even claiming human lives. Heavy rainfall can also cause rivers to flood, in particular in parts of Central and Northern Europe covering several different countries.
As it stands, however, the directive gives the impression that floods will be a predictable and controllable phenomenon within the European Union, because a group of experts will manage them. Yet it does not address the issue of flooding in peripheral regions. Poland’s eastern border is also the border between the European Union and Belarus and Ukraine, which runs along the River Bug. It is hard to imagine coordinated rescue efforts between Poland and Belarus, for example, or cooperation within river basins between the relevant authorities. It is even more difficult to link all strategies and financial mechanisms, particularly those falling under the cohesion policy, which aims to eliminate or minimise the threats of flooding by way of rational policy measures.
On the western banks of the River Bug, EU experts, local authorities and disaster management groups armed with maps of threatened areas and legal instruments, as well as financial analyses, may be able to ensure that any floods are kept under control with little loss. However, several metres further away, in the territory of Belarus or Ukraine, just across the EU border, the flooding of human settlements and factories could be quite severe, entirely uncontrolled and lead to environmental damage. The above scenario obviously ignores the laws of nature, because natural disasters, which undoubtedly include floods, do not recognise political borders. The directive should have paid greater attention to the areas bordering third countries, as is the case with Poland and Ukraine or Belarus. Such areas run a real risk of loss of human life and economic losses, as well as environmental pollution in both my country and other bordering states. What is naturally needed is flexibility, particularly in the case of the regulations implemented in the Member States, and the reduction of excessive red tape."@en1
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