Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-24-Speech-1-111"
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"en.20070924.16.1-111"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to focus in on two areas of Mrs Thomsen's excellent report, namely the building industry and motor cars.
If we are to meet the targets for CO
in the automotive sector we have to invest more in research and development. That much is obvious. Our review of the multiannual budget gives us an opportunity to do that, Commissioner. The research effort on new technology and renewable energies for transport needs to be stepped up dramatically. It should be one of the priorities for our brand-new European Institute of Technology too. Europe's automotive sector can give a lead here, ladies and gentlemen. Some Japanese car makers are now advertising the manufacture of 'zero emission' vehicles as their goal. I think that we in the European Union are well capable of being the first in the world to make that goal a reality.
Then there is that other sector that is crying out for new environmental technology: construction. This need has been highlighted time and again. It is the sector which the European Commission itself describes as the one with the greatest potential for reducing CO
. Construction of new, low-energy housing, ‘passive housing’, is still in its infancy and still relatively expensive. Here too, it is high time we moved up a gear, not only on research and development, but also on tax incentives. We could perfectly well lower the rate of VAT on energy-saving materials and renewables in construction still further, perhaps even to zero. The European Commission in any case has plans – you know this better than I, Commissioner – to put forward new proposals for lowering VAT by 2009, and they could ideally include these ideas for energy-saving measures in the construction sector. So major challenges await us in the months and years ahead. And they require bold and resolute action."@en1
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