Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-20-Speech-5-045-000"
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"en.20120420.7.5-045-000"2
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"Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we are in the middle of an economic and financial crisis and there is no getting around it. Newspapers are full of it every day, television news leads with reports about it and the European Council seems to be meeting about almost nothing else.
Finally, Madam President, I would very much like to thank the shadow rapporteurs for their constructive contribution to making this report what it is now. Thanks, obviously, also to Commissioner Potočnik, who has never failed to stand up for the importance of nature, inside or outside Europe. He did that impressively in Nagoya and will also be doing so at Rio+20. The next step is to develop legislation. As a member of Parliament, I would very much like to help him there and, in particular, start the struggle with the Council.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us take care of nature, the largest and most important service provider of this world. This multinational belongs to all of us. And
exception has already been made – State aid is possible!
However, alongside this omnipresent crisis, we have another crisis, an entirely silent one. A silent crisis of disappearing species, of disappearing habitats and of oceans with ever decreasing water levels. This is the crisis we are talking about this morning.
We know the figures: 25% of all species in Europe are under serious threat, only a sixth of all habitats in Europe are in a favourable condition and as much as 75% of all fish stocks have been overfished. According to statistical experts working for TEEB, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study, every year, we lose 3% of our gross domestic product through loss of biodiversity. Each year, Europe therefore loses EUR 450 billion! That is in quite a different league to the one-off emergency fund for the euro which our government leaders have worked very hard to put together for two years now.
You could also say that what we are talking about today is the largest multinational in Europe, because there is nothing that produces so much food, that provides so many services, that supplies us with so many products and offers so many jobs. Today, we are talking about nature, Europe’s biggest service provider! Any other multinational company of that magnitude would be politically canonised and, indeed, it would be too big to fail. However, when it comes to the multinational of nature, all that we have very often is just fine words.
This is because, let us face it, we were in this very same position ten years ago, when we decided the previous biodiversity strategy. The loss of species was supposed to have been brought to a standstill in 2010. We have failed miserably in that respect, and why? Because at those moments when it really mattered, fine words proved not to be worth much and other interests prevailed.
The main question, then, today, is: what should we do differently to the past ten years so that, in 2020, we do not conclude that we have failed yet again? Let us begin with what we are required to do by law. Is that asking too much of Member States? Why do citizens have to obey the law and Member States not? That is, not like the Netherlands, refusing to restore nature in the Western Scheldt, as we are legally obliged to do, and then getting angry when Commissioner Potočnik finds that unacceptable.
Obviously, it is very important that we integrate these environmental interests in other policy areas. We have a unique opportunity. The agricultural policy is being reformed, the fisheries policy is being reformed and the cohesion policy is being reformed. Half of the European territory consists of farmland. Without active participation on the part of farmers, there will be no nature. However, I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, the reverse is also true: without a strong natural environment, there can be no agriculture, no pollination without bees and no crop whatsoever without fertile soil.
We also need to develop the ‘no net loss’ principle and really apply it. Can anyone give me a better example of how to halt the loss of biodiversity than by just stopping those activities that destroy nature? We also need to stop talking about the inclusion of natural capital in our national annual accounts and just do it: no words please, just deeds!
In addition, we have to be courageous enough to think bigger. Many Europeans believe that true nature exists only in Africa or the Amazon. What nonsense! Europe has a beautiful natural world, though it may not yet have its own Serengeti or Yellowstone. We could have them, however. There are areas where agricultural land is poor, areas people are leaving. Let us invest in them differently and build them up into a new wilderness, into attractions for nature lovers. Real safari in Europe, it really is possible! That will also give these desolate areas totally new economic prospects."@en1
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