Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-20-Speech-1-246"
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"en.20100920.24.1-246"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, several times over the last year, headlines and news slots have been filled with storms, floods, heat waves, fires and other disasters, with serious consequences for the public, the land, the economy and the environment.
Finally, following on from prevention, and bearing in mind the experience gained during recent disasters, it is becoming imperative to revise the regulations for the Solidarity Fund to allow for more flexible and timely mobilisation of this instrument.
Mr President, Commissioner, the issue of disasters has already been the subject of resolutions in Parliament on many occasions. Some of the recommendations in this report were already included in these earlier resolutions. This only heightens their urgency. These recommendations need to be followed up and put into practice. Unfortunately, very little has been done in this area and the Commission bears particular responsibility for this delay.
I urge the Commission to see the broad consensus that the report attracted when it was voted upon and discussed in committee – and which I hope will be confirmed when it is voted upon in this sitting – as a clear sign that this resolution is to be taken seriously, and that the measures set out within it are worth putting into practice.
Yet this was not the only year when this has happened. Over the first six years of the EU Solidarity Fund, the Commission received 62 requests for financial support from 21 different countries. Of these, approximately one third come under the category of major disasters. Other disasters did not result in requests to deploy the fund, although they had considerable and, in many cases, long-lasting, impacts on the affected populations, the environment and the economy.
Disasters are deeply unfair. They almost always have the greatest effect on those who are least able to protect themselves, be they people or states. For this reason, the report states that a Community approach towards disaster prevention should have as its central concern a reduction in the current disparities between regions and Member States in this matter, especially helping to improve prevention in regions and Member States with a high risk exposure and low economic capacity.
Natural disasters and, by extension, man-made disasters, can and should be prevented.
Often, disasters are compounded by policies that create an unequal relationship between mankind and the surrounding environment.
This report recognises that some of the EU’s sectoral policies, such as the common agricultural policy, to take an example, have contributed to increased risk exposure for certain regions and their inhabitants, in this case, by encouraging the abandonment of production and the resulting desertification.
It is therefore important to move towards remedying and reversing the situation. Promoting sensible utilisation of land and economic and social development in balance with nature is a vital factor in disaster prevention.
This report is full of guidelines and recommendations; the debate which took place within the various committees, the discussion with the shadow rapporteurs and the rapporteurs regarding the differing points of view, and the proposals which all parties made in relation to the final version of the report, have greatly contributed to this. I would like to thank everyone for their input and the interest that they have shown, along with their openness to a discussion that ended up being deep and enriching.
I would like to briefly highlight a few of the recommendations made in the report as follows: the creation of a suitable financial framework for disaster prevention which strengthens and articulates the existing financial instruments; the definition of a set of actions to be targeted for special support on the part of the Member States with a view to remedying risk situations; the reinforcement of early-warning systems in the Member States, and establishing and strengthening links between the different warning systems; the creation of a public agricultural insurance scheme; the creation of a European Drought and Desertification Monitoring Centre; and the launch of a special initiative on forests and fire prevention."@en1
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