Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-04-20-Speech-5-046-000"
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"en.20120420.7.5-046-000"2
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"Madam President, I wish, on behalf of the Commission, to thank Mr Gerbrandy and all the honourable Members who have participated in the development of this very comprehensive, high-quality report. Many of the facts that you mentioned in your opening remarks were more than convincing and told a worrying story.
To conclude, we look forward to engaging with Parliament in the implementation of the biodiversity strategy, and I thank you for all your efforts.
In the midst of a very bleak picture for biodiversity in the European Union, this report, fully supporting the EU 2020 biodiversity targets and actions proposed by the Commission, has reinforced my conviction that the European Parliament is a major driving force in restoring this alarming loss of resources. Parliament’s call for a higher restoration rate of ecosystems than proposed at global level under the Convention on Biological Diversity is particularly significant in this respect.
Against the background of difficult austerity measures across the continent, this report demonstrates that the EU is maintaining its strong and steady commitment to resisting the pressure of further eroding its natural capital. This year, which will see us celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Habitats Directive and of Natura 2000, is of particular importance. We need to acknowledge the success of our nature conservation policy and identify clearly the challenges ahead.
But do the circumstances we are currently facing mean that we should protect biodiversity and the Natura 2000 network with fewer resources? The answer is rather that we should be daring and innovative in the toolbox we use to develop our objectives.
The report suggests a number of promising ways forward, calling as it does for collaborative biodiversity protection and more efficient mobilisation of our available financial and human resources and for us to rise above outdated economic models and embrace new, greener ones.
Just as collaborative consumption is revolutionising old market behaviour, collaborative biodiversity protection will reinvent the way in which all the actors involved take part in combating biodiversity loss, in ways and on a scale never witnessed before.
The biodiversity crisis can be addressed successfully through new approaches that promote the exchange of knowledge, technologies, data, innovative solutions and products, and by mobilising all the actors on the ground. Progress in research and innovation partnerships will facilitate this even more. However, this alone will not suffice.
An in-depth review of how financial and human resources have thus far been allocated to biodiversity protection is paramount. This undeniably requires better integration in national and EU policies, in particular, the common agricultural and fisheries policies, the cohesion policy, external instruments and development cooperation. It calls for more efficient mobilisation of public and private funds as well as stressing the need to minimise the pressures on biodiversity. But it also requires developing innovative partnerships with business, as is being achieved through the planned ‘No Net Loss’ initiative, and an increased use of instruments such as procedures for the valuation of, and payments for, ecosystem services.
We are now at a crucial stage of the implementation of nature legislation: while the designation of Natura 2000 sites is nearing completion (with the main gaps in the designation of marine sites), the main priority shifts to ensuring that the network is effectively managed and properly resourced. The Commission proposed a strengthened integrated approach, for example, by using various EU structural funds together with an enhanced biodiversity strand of the LIFE Programme. To that effect, the prioritised action frameworks to be developed by the Member States will allow a strategic planning approach for the next programming period."@en1
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