Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-04-Speech-3-360"
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"en.20090204.19.3-360"2
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"Madam President, first of all, I too would obviously like to express my condolences and offer my sympathy firstly to those families who are in mourning, and to all those who are victims, in particular the many who have been cut off and who today still lack electricity, water or public services.
Commissioner, I listened to you promise us – and I think you were right – that crisis prevention measures would be consolidated, but the issue this evening, if I may say so, is compensation for the last crisis.
This is the third catastrophic storm in 20 years. The first one, as you will remember, was in July 1988, in Brittany. It still holds the wind speed record: over 250 km/h. The second, which was on an unprecedented scale, was the storm of 27 December 1999. It flattened most of our forests, for the first time. The third storm was on 24 January 2009. The reason I remember it is that I live in Gironde, very close to the Gironde forests.
The first thing we need to do is ask ourselves what the European Union's added value might be. In forestry the situation is catastrophic and what threatens us is that foresters have stopped foresting, by which I mean that some of them believe this profession has become unsustainable.
We must therefore put a plan in place, and I am among those who were ready, almost 10 years ago now, to consider a joint crisis organisation, so that we can sell all the wood which has now been placed on the market rather involuntarily, without affecting the price: we could do this by blocking supplies from other European regions, by funding transport and by making sure that this land can be replanted very quickly; otherwise, I think it will become subject to speculation, or even abandoned. Here we have a problem which is of direct interest to the European Union.
Secondly, I am also thinking of the oyster-farmers. Today the profession is in dire straits. It was already in trouble in 2002 after another disaster which was not at all natural, the sinking of the
and at present the oyster-farmers of the Arcachon Basin are losing all hope of being able to get back on their feet.
Finally, I would like the European Union Solidarity Fund to be mobilised. Obviously, I sympathise with what Mrs Laperrouze has said. Today, the Council is not here. It will do it no harm and I think it is extremely disappointing that it has refused to change the rule and that this fund today is so difficult to mobilise.
I ask you, moreover, whether the French Government itself has mobilised it. I am among those who will strive to see that it does this, because I believe it is very important, a few months from the elections, that our citizens know that European solidarity does exist and that Europe is not just dominated by the market."@en1
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