Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-30-Speech-3-255"
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"en.20080130.22.3-255"2
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"Mr President, may I begin by thanking and congratulating my colleague Fiona Hall, who has come up with the right response to a very important and judicious fundamental initiative from the Commission. I must praise Commissioner Piebalgs for having put himself at the head of those who are committed to energy efficiency, because energy efficiency is undoubtedly one of the main sources of self-sufficiency with regard to energy supply. It is also a source of innovation, for if we do everything we are proposing in the report, we shall establish ourselves well ahead of the field, even on a global scale, in terms of innovation and the objectives of the Lisbon Process.
Be that as it may, I am struck by the immoderate criticism of people’s lifestyles at some points in the report. Let me just cite one example: paragraph 16 baldly asserts that the Commission should take certain appliances off the market. A specific reference is made to patio heaters or
‘heat toadstools’, as some people call them in Germany. Hysteria about climate change does sometimes bring out veritable totalitarian traits!
We have just managed to evict smokers from cafés. I believe that was the right thing to do, and I have no problem with it. Many landlords have now acted shrewdly and have put up these patio heaters outside. A new culture has developed. People have started to have convivial evenings outside, where they can smoke, and now along come the European politicians, we few individuals here, and tell 490 million people how they can and cannot spend their leisure hours. We are trying to change lifestyles again. I do not think our citizens will put up with this for much longer.
It is right that the aims of climate protection should be writ large, but we really must ask ourselves whether we should be seeking to regulate the details of people’s lifestyles. Or do we want to outlaw patio heaters at the Christmas markets that we know from Germany and – yes, Claude – from Luxembourg as well as from Belgium and Austria? We would all be well advised not to forget our fellow citizens and to avoid interfering in such a pleasant aspect of society as people’s personal lives."@en1
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"Heizpilze"1
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