Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-14-Speech-3-345"
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"en.20090114.17.3-345"2
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".
Mr President, my group requests that a temporary committee be set up pursuant to Rule 175 in order to answer many of these questions, which Mr Saryusz-Wolski has also raised; in other words, that we join with the Commission and the Council too, of course, to draw the appropriate conclusions – which we can hopefully draw together – from the situation by the May part-session.
The talks we have held with the representatives of Gazprom and Naftogaz – Russia and Ukraine, in other words – have confirmed our impression that both sides are behaving irresponsibly. I can reaffirm clearly what Commissioner Piebalgs said: at the moment neither is acting responsibly, nor as a responsible partner of the European Union. This must have the appropriate consequences.
For all my support for the initiatives taken, I must say that we have known for some time that Ukraine is refusing to build the monitoring stations it promised; the money provided by the European Union remains unused, and we have not reacted. We have also known for at least two months that agreement was not reached by the deadline of 1 November that was laid down at the beginning of October. In my eyes, 18 December was perhaps a little too late. The Commission should have done rather more here to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and should also have told Member States what was possible. Admittedly, a great deal of solidarity was shown, but I should have expected it to foresee the possibility of a negative development such as this.
Yet what is important now is not that we point the finger – this is not my intention – but just that we draw the appropriate conclusions, that we are better prepared next time; or rather – much more importantly, of course – can prevent such a situation recurring.
I must add, Commissioner, that we have perhaps spent a little too much time discussing liberalisation and markets – particularly in the gas sector, as you are well aware. This would not have done us any good, and indeed it is not doing us any good now. As we have always pointed out, the gas sector is unusual, it is tainted – one could even say determined – by politics, and it is no use elevating the liberalisation of the gas sector to the supreme principle when we still have Ukraine and Russia playing this out politically. We do need a strong common line of communication in this regard, and this must be demonstrated just as strongly.
I agree with much that has been said here. We need more pipelines; we agree that the Nabucco pipeline is a very important project. You yourself also mentioned the trans-Sahara gas pipeline, to which we must give some thought. These things will not happen overnight, but signals must be sent out. We need many more interconnectors and interconnections. Yet these, too, will not just appear. Do not think that the market will take care of this, as it will not, since it has no interest in doing so. After all, these are investments that are not immediately profitable, but are made so that there is a reserve. The same is true of the gas reserves, of course. It is absolutely unacceptable for many countries to have few or no gas reserves or even refuse to notify the Commission of such reserves. We have to make common cause in this regard.
For all my criticism of details, this House and the Commission must really call several Member States to order and require them to pursue a common European energy policy at long last. I agree with Mr Saryusz-Wolski on this point: we have indeed called for this together, and received far too little support from the Council – or rather the Member States. If we want this, I do ask that we develop a common strategy on it by May – our last sitting. After all, it is unacceptable for this Parliament to go into recess or to the elections without our really having drawn the appropriate conclusions from these tragic events – hopefully together."@en1
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