Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-25-Speech-1-103"
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"en.20060925.14.1-103"2
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".
Mr President, in former times, countries were preponderantly rural and cities were the exception. The growth in population and the advent of urban professions have changed this dramatically over the past century to the extent that the large majority of Europeans now live in real cities, in suburbs and in rural areas that have been urbanised to a large extent due to industry, ports or mining.
In the developing world, but also in parts of Europe, we notice that such urban areas can become completely unviable on account of traffic chaos, slums, pollution and land speculation. Where clean drinking water, a dense network of frequent public transport, sound waste removal and affordable, good housing are absent, or health care, social work and education are inadequate, those cities become hell. As soon as cities go downhill, well-educated people on high incomes can move away from the area, but labourers and immigrants have no choice but to stay. To this day, national and European policy is based on the increase in the number of cars and cut-backs in public services. That is putting the future of our cities at risk. It is right and proper that the EU’s attention that was originally focused on agricultural production and the countryside should, in recent years, have shifted to the cities. There was also a downside to this, unfortunately. If the Commission’s proposal from 2000 for a contract obligation for urban transport had been adopted without any amendments, this would have prejudiced the extension of tram networks and free public transport, as well as the creation of a dense and frequent transport network. It is cities and regions themselves that should, as far as possible, be responsible for regulating city transport, physical planning, urban development, open space planning and bicycle paths. Where the European Union can add value, though, is in areas like research, and in the exchange and transfer of knowledge. In that way, we can control dangers and abuses, promote initiatives for improvement and reinforce the development of, and compliance with, better environmental standards. Particularly in the future Member States Romania and Bulgaria, much needs to be done in this area.
I support Mr Hegyi in his striving towards non-polluting transport, the protection of historic city centres, the adoption of careful water management, economical energy consumption and protection for areas of natural beauty."@en1
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