Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-04-Speech-1-152"
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"en.20060904.20.1-152"2
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"Mr President, this summer there have again been numerous fires in several countries of southern Europe. They have been especially devastating in Spain, particularly in Galicia.
This year in Galicia, the fires exposed the inefficiency and lack of planning of the regional government. This very much exacerbated the consequences of the disaster: 4 fatalities, more than 500 wounded, more than 100 000 hectares burnt, 4% of Galicia’s wooded area burnt, serious environmental damage and, furthermore, serious repercussions for livestock farming, the tourism industry, etc.
This black August has also caused deep alarm throughout Galician society: Cerdedo, Soutomaior, Ponte Caldelas, Pontevedra, Meis, Santiago, Padrón, Muros, Vimianzo, Avión and Quiroga are some of the many municipalities affected by the fires in Galicia this summer.
The Galicians are a Europeanist people. They know that, as Goethe said, Europe was created on the road to Santiago de Compostela, and, as an Objective 1 region, Galicia is aware of the role that the Structural and Cohesion Funds have played in its development. I would also like to point out that, in Galicia, the number of ‘yes’ votes in last year’s referendum on the European Constitution was far higher than the average for the rest of Spain.
Galicia is now expecting the European Union’s Solidarity Fund to be mobilised, which, furthermore, will help to improve the Union’s image.
Nevertheless, more measures to prevent any repetition of this kind of disaster are needed. We must therefore make progress with the construction of a European civil protection system capable of responding quickly and effectively to the disasters that take place almost every summer and which affect the forests of southern Europe in particular.
The European Union must also pay more attention to the continent’s forest wealth in terms of preventing fires. In this regard, I am not sure whether the coming dismantling of the Forest Focus programme within the Life + programme is good news. Furthermore, as this Parliament has said on many occasions, we need a European directive in the field of forest fires and drought.
Neither Galicia, Spain nor Europe can resign themselves to the continued disappearance of our forests, as if that were their unavoidable fate."@en1
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