Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-14-Speech-2-059"
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"en.20061114.7.2-059"2
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"Mr President, I should like to thank Mrs Sornosa Martínez for her excellent report and her cooperation with all the shadow rapporteurs. I also want to note the very helpful assistance of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, as well as that of the Commission and the Council in formulating a small number of necessary final compromise amendments.
Mercury, as you will all know by now, is a highly toxic substance that we all want and need to get rid of from our lives and the lives of generations to come, as soon as and as effectively as possible. The legislative proposal will begin to put into effect the mercury strategy that we endorsed in March this year and will ban or substantially reduce the presence of mercury in various non-electrical and non-electronic devices. Instruments containing mercury such as the household thermometer will be replaced by more accurate and versatile, quicker and safer measuring devices that do not contain mercury.
As with most pieces of legislation, some differences of opinion were encountered in the examination of this proposal. Thankfully, a sensible compromise agreement was reached by most groups, but there are certainly still objections from some MEPs. The problem has been the insistence, mainly by a few English, Dutch and Belgian colleagues, that modern antique-looking barometers manufactured by a very small number of SMEs in England, Holland and Belgium should still be allowed to contain mercury. This is despite the fact that a two-year transitional derogation period has been allowed after the entry into force of the directive; despite the fact that, at the end of the two-year derogation period, the Commission is to review the availability of reliable safer alternatives that are technically and economically feasible for use in such instruments; despite the fact that barometers that are genuine antiques, i.e. more than 50 years old, would be exempt from this directive; and despite the fact that, if the compromise agreement in respect of barometers falls through, the whole legislative proposal effectively falls and has to go back to the drawing board.
Do not allow yourselves inadvertently to be used by those who might want to kill the legislation as a whole and those who might want to use the issue of barometers to promote their Eurosceptic views. Please vote in favour of the compromise amendments and help get rid of toxic mercury, for health’s sake."@en1
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