Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-15-Speech-3-235"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20061115.18.3-235"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, thank you for those kind words. I will try to be like a talkative Finn and use a maximum of five minutes of your time.
This report also deals with the economy. It deals with culture and security.
The third and final point: what do we want? One could summarise the report in religious terms, saying that we want the Ten Commandments of the Baltic Sea. The First Commandment goes to Mrs Wallström and her team. It is that we want the Commission to take an initiative on the Baltic Sea Strategy. It would be wonderful if the Commission could do that in one form or another.
The Second is for a summit meeting before every European Council, where the Heads of State and Governments of the Baltic Sea region, including Germany, get together and discuss their positions.
Third – and this has been an issue that has had overwhelming support among the people around the region, although there are one or two who disagree – we want a separate budget line. We may think the world revolves around money. But if you want to have a true Baltic Sea Strategy, you need policies, and for those policies you need money. It is as simple as that. We are not saying this should be the only source. As in the case of the Northern Dimension, support could come, for instance, from the ENP.
The Fourth Commandment is environmental protection, for instance the idea of protected areas.
The Fifth is a rather topical issue, and that is an energy market and an energy policy for this area. Of course I will not mention the pipeline between Russia and Germany in this instance.
The Sixth Commandment is infrastructure. We need to work on infrastructure. That means water, air, rail and roads, to get the infrastructure to work well.
Seventh, we would like to see the application of all four free movements in the area, that is, the free movement of money, the free movement of people, the free movement of goods and the free movement of services.
Eighth, we would like to have good exchange among centres of excellence. We would like to have good student exchanges.
Ninth, and this is a pet subject of Mr Lax, we would like to have fluid border crossings. Finns know the problems with that.
I would like to set three questions. First of all, what is this report all about? Secondly, why are we tabling this report? And thirdly, what do we actually want?
Tenth, we need the increased presence of Europol.
All in all, I ask for three practical things. One: a Commission initiative. Two: for the Finnish Presidency to bring up this issue as part of the Northern Dimension package at the EU-Russia summit. Four amendments have been tabled. As rapporteur, I will put a plus sign in my voting list on two of those, and that is the amendment by the Greens and the amendment by Mrs Jäättenmäki of the ALDE. On the third one, which has to do with the Arctic region, I suggest a split vote. On one part, I will certainly put a minus, on the other one I will put a plus. On the final amendment, by Mr Väyrynen, which suggests that there should be no separate budget line, I will put a minus and would ask most of my colleagues to do the same.
That is what the Baltic Sea Strategy is about, why we have it, and what we want.
(
On the first question of what this report is about, it is about a Baltic Sea Strategy for the Northern Dimension. I will stress that again, especially for the Finns sitting across the table. It is a Baltic Sea Strategy
the Northern Dimension, so the aim is to strengthen that concept.
Our thinking in this report is that the Northern Dimension is based on three wonderful pillars. One of them is what we call the Paavo Väyrynen pillar, in other words the Arctic. The second is what we might call the Mr Paasilinna pillar, which is Russia, and the third is what we would call the Mr Beazley pillar, which is the Baltic and the Baltic Sea Strategy. This report focuses on the Baltic Sea Strategy only.
The report has three aims. One: to support the Northern Dimension. Two: to make the Baltic Sea a priority of the Northern Dimension – we firmly believe that should be the key area of the Northern Dimension itself. Three: we want to raise awareness of the Baltic Sea as a brand, as a concept.
Why are we tabling this report and why are we tabling it now? The first reason is general, and it is that after enlargement in 2004 the Baltic Sea became an inner sea, a
. We have eight EU States around the sea, one of them is non-EU, that is Russia and then of course there is Kaliningrad. But basically it is an EU sea.
We have a wonderful window of opportunity for two reasons. The first is that we have the Finnish Presidency, which gives us an opportunity to push this issue forward, and the second is that we have an EU-Russia summit on 24 November. That is why we wanted to push this through as fast as possible.
For those who have not visited the Baltic Sea, I remember from when I was a child that in many places you could actually see the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The average depth is 58 metres. Standing on the pier you could see to the bottom. It was clear. You could see the seaweed. It was a wonderful place to swim in. For those who have been there lately, it is green gunk nowadays. Green gunk! It is really nasty. It is in really bad shape. Oxygen levels are very low. You can see virtually nothing at all. It is time to react.
58 metres average depth! It takes 30 years for a drop of water to go in, and then out of the Baltic Sea, so the circulation is very slow. People from the Mediterranean may have a completely different understanding of water. They see the Mediterranean – clear, blue and wonderful. We see green and nasty. Something needs to be done."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples