Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-11-Speech-3-458"
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"en.20070711.36.3-458"2
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"Madam President, I will respond as quickly as I can.
I can say first of all that I as always regret the loss of life very strongly. The loss of life of the fire workers in Greece and the loss of life for instance in Spain and in other countries.
I myself come from a country where we had other big losses because of floods. You might remember a few years ago when I was still the Austria Foreign Minister. Indeed, the floods had been very strong in the Czech Republic, in Austria, in Germany and in many other countries. It was my government that started the process of this solidarity fund. So I know how necessary this is and I can tell you that we will continue to use the solidarity fund, but this is on top of all the efforts that have to be done nationally. This is the one thing that has not been mentioned here, I must say.
But of course I understand all the concerns that have been mentioned because I myself have also lived through fires, especially in the south of Europe. I know what that means. So I completely understand you.
Whilst of course the renewed interinstitutional agreement guarantees the financing of the fund until 2013, I regret, and I must tell you frankly, that the Council has so far not responded favourably to the joint efforts of the Commission and Parliament to further improve the instrument of the solidarity fund. In April 2005, the Commission presented to Parliament and the Council its proposal for a revised solidarity fund regulation – and I think we are speaking about that here – whose key elements have a large scope and a provision for advance payments and simplification. The proposal was very favourably received here but so far, as I said, no progress has yet been made in the Council.
The Finnish Presidency did not continue discussing the proposal, and in spite of our efforts, the German Presidency, as was also mentioned in the debate, did not put the issue back on the agenda. Hopefully, this can come in the future. I think it is important.
Finally, on the Barnier report, we are also committed to continuously reinforcing the existing civil protection mechanism. I think the Barnier report remains a great source of inspiration for this work.
For the long term, a more effective system is needed to ensure the best possible response to natural and other disasters, both inside and outside the Community. We view a gradual move from a coordination mechanism to some sort of European civil protection force, as is mentioned in the Barnier report, as a positive development of this policy. This work could then build on the modules which the Commission and the Member States are currently developing.
Lastly let me say that there is a great package on the questions of climate and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that has been put on the table of all the Member States by the Commission and was adopted by the Member States in the European Council in the spring. I think the things are there and they now have to be implemented."@en1
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