Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-23-Speech-3-412-000"
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"en.20120523.21.3-412-000"2
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"Mr President, I would like to begin with a few figures that those present here can probably conceive of, but a lot of people outside cannot. We will have 9 billion people on the planet in 2050, that in 15 years’ time, we will see a doubling to 3 billion of the number of people with a median income, that we need a planet and a half to meet the needs of our consumers and soon enough we will need three planets – and we simply do not have them. Commodity prices have risen by 150% in the past 10 years, in an economy that is addicted to cheap raw materials. This is costing our economy billions, no, hundreds of billions a year extra.
That is the real agenda and I am, therefore, surprised that the Council – which is unfortunately not attending this debate – is not playing ball. In other words, I am surprised that the Council is not showing enough ambition to rally Europe-wide support for this action plan so that we can progress towards much more efficient management of raw materials.
Therefore, what we need in Europe is an action plan, a concrete action plan to address this. The Commission’s road map, for which I would like to warmly congratulate Commissioner Potočnik, is an excellent start. The Commission’s analysis and approach are very good. However, what I find still to be missing is a greater degree of urgency and robustness, and that is precisely what we, as Parliament, are now making clear. You can see that not only in the content of the report, but in its structure too, where we have set six key priorities in the Committee on the Environment. I would now like to run through all the six priorities.
First of all, it is very important that we agree with industry a joint action plan on business to enable Europe to use raw materials more efficiently. We need to do that together, because infrastructure needs to be adapted, regulations must be simplified and adapted, but businesses, too, need to realise that they have a lot to do to produce more efficiently.
The second key priority is that we really need to move towards a single recycling and reuse market. It must be made easier to export waste containing valuable raw materials across borders. That is linked to tax incentives for the use of secondary raw materials. Secondary raw materials should ultimately be cheaper than their primary counterparts and we need tax incentives for that, too.
The third key priority is the promotion of research and development. We need to develop alternatives and we need to help the recycling industry to professionalise even further.
Fourth, we need to extend the Ecodesign Directive. It is currently only focused on energy, but we must also ensure easier recovery of raw materials in products and that begins as early as the design stage.
Fifth, we need to integrate the term, the idea of ‘resource efficiency’, into other policy areas; in the field of agriculture, where we need to deal more efficiently with water, in fisheries, etc.
The sixth key priority is that Europe should develop clear environmental indicators and, as far as this Parliament is concerned, this should be based on the concept of footprints. Measurement is knowledge and that is essential.
Mr President, the more I have worked on this issue, the more I have realised that this is not primarily an environmental agenda. This is an economic agenda. We need to deal more efficiently with raw materials in order to keep our economy afloat in the future. I have already mentioned the extra hundreds of billions of euro that the increase in the price of raw materials is going to cost industry every year."@en1
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