Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-10-Speech-1-175"
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"en.20080310.21.1-175"2
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"Mr President, I am replacing Mr Titley, the leader of the Labour MEPs, tonight, but I can speak on behalf of all those MEPs in welcoming this amending budget and the decision to grant EUR 162 million to the UK regions affected by flooding.
As Mr Ashworth has said, it is a small grant towards covering the huge costs of the damage done by the floods in the UK, but we are appreciative to our colleagues in the Committee on Budgets, who voted unanimously, and also to the Commission. I understand it was the quickest payment ever made: within seven months. Therefore, although many people have been suffering for a long time, it is progress compared with previous funds. We also understand that it is one of the largest payments ever made, and we are appreciative of that.
Last year’s floods affected 48 000 UK homes and 700 businesses and the total damage is estimated at over EUR 4 billion. My own region of Yorkshire was one of the worst affected and many people have still not returned to their homes and, therefore, this help and assistance is very much appreciated.
I am replacing Mr Titley as he is stuck in London because of the very severe storms that are battering western Europe this evening. We cannot attribute all bad weather to climate change, but we do know that the number of extreme weather events is increasing. We have seen severe floods, and also the fires in Greece and southern Europe last summer, and no amount of solidarity funds can actually meet the damage and the cost which we are seeing as a result of these climate-change events.
We are beginning our work as MEPs on the new package of climate change legislation. I very much hope this House will adopt a tough stance and implement and agree good legislation which really does tackle climate change so that we do not have to come back here and ask the Commission for money to tackle these kinds of events."@en1
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