Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-20-Speech-2-528"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20080520.36.2-528"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
". −
I should like first of all to thank all the speakers for their appreciative words, especially Commissioner Dimas. I should like to make a couple more observations.
I believe that it is of exceptional importance that this dismantling fund be established. This fund should be filled with contributions from shipowners and not, of course, with government subsidies. I believe that that is not at all necessary. In the same way as a scrapping fund for old cars, this will begin to support itself as time goes by. I am happy that the Commissioner is also thinking along these lines. We must be very quick and, therefore, it may perhaps be a good idea to enter into an agreement with the European shipowners as soon as possible, so that they will have their ships dismantled responsibly in any case. I know that shipping company P&O Nedlloyd Maersk has had around 20 ships dismantled responsibly in China, particularly also by ensuring that facilities were provided there where possible.
I believe that we must make the shipowners, in particular, aware of their social responsibility and let them know that they really cannot do this any more; that is, to sell a ship for large sums of money. It is then sold 10 more times before it is finally dismantled. We need to adopt a completely different approach to dismantling and, in my opinion, it may well be possible to induce the shipowners to do so, especially given all the negative publicity on this issue in recent years.
Dismantling work is also often carried out in contravention of local legislation and against the wishes of the Ministries of Social Affairs and the Environment. I have also been told that, in Bangladesh, it is not the national legislation that is the problem but the enforcement of such legislation. I think, therefore, that there may well be sufficient facilities in place, but they are not being used.
Mr Matsakis also asked what my objection is to his amendment. The issue is that this amendment implies that environmentally destructive conditions involved in the dismantling of ships cannot be permitted to continue in developing countries. However, they cannot be permitted to continue anywhere, including in Eastern Europe, for example, where ships are indeed still occasionally dismantled according to irresponsible methods. It is therefore excessive to focus this exclusively on developing countries, particularly if it is later specified that it is not allowed to be carried out in places such as the Far East. I feel that this addition is unnecessary, therefore.
Unfortunately, I cannot support the amendments by Mrs Liotard, as they are too protectionist. Mr Liberadzki has raised an important issue, specifically that there are also ships stored elsewhere, left to rust, with nothing being done about them. We must also tackle that issue. I should like to say a big thank you to everyone once again, and I shall leave it at that."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples