Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-04-Speech-4-048"
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"en.20080904.5.4-048"2
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".
Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, all the important natural resources and environments, such as water, air and species and habitats of flora and fauna, are covered by specific Community legislation, whereas the soil, which is non-renewable and a scarce resource, as the Minister has just said, does not have this protection.
I want to end by encouraging the Council Presidency to pursue its efforts to get this vital directive adopted. Do not be disheartened, Mrs Kosciusko-Morizet. We all know that there have been encouraging changes in the positions within the Council but you should be aware that we will not allow this directive to be stripped of its content.
Mrs Kosciusko-Morizet, your President often demonstrates great courage and great ambition on certain issues and challenges that are important: soil protection must be one of them.
This omission must therefore be urgently rectified as we all suffer as a result of it, particularly at times of food scares or debates on fundamental economic and energy alternatives which are essentially based on the soil.
Filling this gap in Community legislation would serve to highlight the measures that we advocate in the fight against climate change, including aspects such as combating increasing erosion and desertification, and not forgetting the serious problem of soil contamination or the sealing of this soil as a result of rapid and unsustainable development which is not only at the root of the current economic crisis, but also devours such a fundamental resource as the soil.
In addition, including this issue within the European institutional legislative system would act as a stimulus to improve what is happening in the legislative process, by placing it within a coherent framework based on regulation and possibly on European funding which we could also link with the resources committed to the fight against climate change.
We should not forget that the risks threatening this finite and non-renewable resource affect, to a greater or lesser extent, the whole territory of all the Member States of the European Union, including significant cross-border effects.
There are various Member States – as my fellow Member has just said – which are not particularly inclined to standardise soil protection at European level. They should remember that what this Parliament previously adopted is not only a flexible, adaptable and ambitious legal instrument but also one which is not excessively prescriptive. It is an instrument that could help in making the fight against climate change more rigorous and effective.
Soil also has a very important function as a reserve of raw materials and as a carbon reserve, not to mention the CO
storage proposals that are currently being debated or the effects that may be indicated in the legislation on the scarcity of water.
This proposal for a directive has been blocked in the Council since November 2007. This is unacceptable. Nearly a year has passed since this Chamber gave its opinion and I therefore consider that everything must be done to reverse this situation.
In this way, the Member States would have a specific regulation to protect the soil, not only with the aim of protecting the environment, but also to fight against climate change and the deforestation and desertification that are occurring. It would also create new areas for research, innovation and the application of technologies, lead to the creation of jobs and social opportunities and, in particular, improve the quality of life of European citizens."@en1
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