Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-09-11-Speech-2-012-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120911.4.2-012-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, it is with mixed feelings that I stand here today, as the decision that we are to vote on, that is to say, the implementation of the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) agreement on sulphur, is something that we have had very little opportunity to influence. I think it is far from a brilliant piece of legislation.
I welcome the fact that we are finally tackling the issue of sulphur and that we have a global solution, as it is a major health problem. As the Commissioner pointed out, sulphur emissions from shipping will soon exceed sulphur emissions on land.
Anyone who has seen bunker oil will know what I mean. Bunker oil is so dirty that in many cases, it has to be heated up just to get it into the engine to burn it. However, as I said, the way in which this decision was taken is not at all good. In fact, it is completely unreasonable. The agreement splits Europe in two. It gives the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel, in other words, the areas that already have the strictest rules in the world, even stricter rules, while, at the same time, nowhere near as much is done in other parts of Europe. It is as though the lives of Greek people are worth less than those of Danish people, for example.
At Parliament’s reading of the matter, we tried to rectify this absurdity and ensure that we have stricter requirements everywhere at the same time. We managed to make a slight improvement, but it is a long way from being enough. This decision results in unequal conditions throughout Europe. This will be extremely expensive, costing in the order of many billions, which will be noticeable in the already stretched state budgets. Even yesterday, I saw that industries were announcing that they would move, in which case we have gained nothing.
However, the Member States have asked for this themselves. Those countries that are currently worst affected have asked for this. Therefore, it is simply up to us to implement this decision. I think that the scheme is unreasonable. Those of us here, who are forced to legislate on this, should clearly have been involved from the outset in the discussion on the form this IMO decision should take. We cannot now stand here and claim that we would react at five minutes to twelve when the whole debate on the consequences of the decision took place at five minutes past twelve. If I had been able to stop this from happening, I would have done so, but unfortunately, the opportunity did not arise."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples