Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-09-Speech-2-379"
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"en.20100309.24.2-379"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Kelly is asking a question relating to a recent tragic event, one that has struck Madeira and the Atlantic coast, in my country in particular, causing dozens of deaths. Whilst I am on the subject, I should naturally like to express once again our solidarity with all of the victims, and my colleague, Commissioner Hahn, has been at the scene in both of the places that I have just mentioned.
In this case, too, we have to confront the global challenge posed by climate change and we shall see a growing number of natural disasters, just as we shall continue to see, moreover, disasters that are not natural and that may have serious consequences for human life, nature and the economy. For example, I am thinking about industrial disasters, fires and disasters at sea.
This is an issue to which I have been personally committed for a very long time. It was here in this very Chamber, in 1999, that I, as the recently appointed Commissioner for Regional Policy, had to respond to Greek Members who were worried about the consequences of the earthquakes that had just occurred in their country.
At the time, I proposed, firstly, the creation of a solidarity fund and, secondly, the creation of a European civil protection force. We had to wait until 2002 and the major flooding that affected Germany, Austria and Slovakia before the Commission was able to create, in the space of three months, with the help of Parliament and of the Council, the Solidarity Fund that will intervene in Madeira and on the Atlantic coast, just as it has intervened in several major disasters since 2002.
My colleague, Mrs Georgieva, is working with Baroness Ashton on the introduction of the European Civil Protection Force, and I hope that we will not have to wait for a new disaster before we pool our responses and our relief efforts under a single European flag in disasters such as that in Haiti or the tsunami.
The question that was asked relates to insurance, because not everything is related to uninsurable public property that can be covered by the Solidarity Fund. I think that there is progress to be made on the risks that can be covered by insurance policies.
The 2009 White Paper on adapting to climate change suggests having publicly supported insurance systems where no insurance exists. In the follow-up to this White Paper, I want to examine the role insurance products could play in supplementing these measures. I intend to start with a benchmarking exercise
I have asked my services to examine what exists in the various Member States. In situations where there could be a crossborder impact, it might even be appropriate to promote insurance schemes that are Europewide rather than national.
I am very aware of the complexity of this issue, Mr Kelly. I shall carry out this work in cooperation with all of the stakeholders, with the insurance companies, with the Member States and the experts, to exchange best practices and to set the priorities at the correct level. I am convinced that we can improve the protection of Europe’s citizens in the face of the increasing number of natural disasters. That is why I wish to undertake this extremely practical task of screening, of benchmarking the various existing insurance systems for natural disasters in the 27 Member States."@en1
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