Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-13-Speech-2-595-000"
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"en.20111213.35.2-595-000"2
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"Mr President, from 1 January 2017, phosphates will therefore be excluded from dishwasher detergents. These measures, which have been long awaited by many professionals and NGOs, will help to reinforce the legislative arsenal of those Member States who have already banned these powerful cleaning agents. Phosphates, which we know are very effective as water softeners, are also pollutants that disrupt the aquatic balance, thus contributing to the eutrophication of European waters.
I would like to give a heartfelt thank you to the rapporteur, Mr Newton Dunn, who wisely and intelligently, alongside the Polish Presidency and the Commission, was able to successfully argue that this regulation could legitimately be extended to include dishwasher detergents.
Nevertheless, I have two reservations with regard to this agreement that will cause me to abstain from the vote tomorrow. Please note that these views are my own and not those of my group. These two reservations seem to me to be symptomatic of the state of the spirit of Europe today. The first is that, in my opinion, this agreement does not sufficiently take into account the small and medium-sized enterprises who manufacture phosphates in particular. For example, not far from my home, near Liège, the company Prayon, which creates 780 direct jobs, is rightly concerned about the negative impact of this legislation on its business. This demonstrates that the tenet ‘think small first’ is sometimes difficult to put into practice.
My second reservation, which has already been raised and is clearly logical, is that as 90% of the eutrophication of our waters comes from sources other than dishwasher detergents, this pollution will continue with or without them.
We need to kick-start Europe: we should not legislate solely on minor issues as we have done here, but on the heart of the matter. It is clear that we must strive for an improved implementation of the directive on waste water treatment, but we must also work to tackle intensive farming and the improper disposal of food waste – the true culprits responsible for the deterioration of European waters."@en1
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