Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-11-Speech-4-062"
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"en.20100311.3.4-062"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, several European regions have been hit by some exceptional natural meteorological phenomena, which have resulted in huge material, economic, agricultural and environmental damage, and have sadly claimed too many human lives.
I dare to hope, Commissioner, that beyond your due condolences, the European Solidarity Fund, a European activity that in this case is useful, will be able to be implemented quickly and flexibly in both France and Madeira, just as it has been – as someone said – in other European countries, to help my compatriots in Vendée and Charente-Maritime restore their vital infrastructure and services.
It is my understanding from what you have said that the French Government has not yet referred this matter to you, and I am very surprised at that. However, I must say that there are some aspects to the way in which certain people are exploiting these events that I find quite intolerable.
Firstly, this compulsive need to link the natural disasters that we are suffering to socalled global warming. No matter what political or pseudo-scientific claims we may be fed, they will not dictate the weather and the tides any more than they will prevent earthquakes.
The second is the systematic search for culprits and easy scapegoats. The Xynthia disaster in the west of France is due to the very rare combination of two events: the storm itself, of course, and some unusually high tides, which led to the collapse of the dams.
Controversy has erupted over the building permits granted by the mayors, who have been made personally responsible for the deaths that have occurred in their municipalities. However, no one – not the
the region, the public services, the town planners or the architects – objected to these building permits requested by individuals.
The elected representatives of the region, and in particular in the small municipalities, are quite rightly held in high regard by their fellow citizens. They shoulder a great deal of responsibility for virtually nothing, they have a remarkable sense of the general interest, they are coping with ever more complex duties, for which Europe is partly responsible, and they have also been completely abandoned by the public authorities, and I was anxious to point this out here."@en1
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