Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-04-15-Speech-2-864-000"
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"en.20140415.115.2-864-000"2
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"Madam President, I hate to break this northern European consensus here, but we do have to deal with this problem sensibly. Does anybody actually enjoy seeing the evidence of our collective addiction to plastic bags littering the countryside, littering the cities, choking our wildlife? No, of course not. This is not what we are here to grandstand about. We all agree with that. The point is how are we going to deal with it and how are we going to deal with it properly?
Where we differ over this is not the ends: it is the means of getting there. I would like to congratulate Mr Potočnik on his proposal, which I think sets out a very reasonable and very useful set of methods by which we can get to the point where we have significantly, indeed almost completely, eliminated our use of plastic bags. But we have to be realistic about this. People in this Parliament seem to be very fond of compulsion, the idea that we have to make people do things. This report clearly gives the tools by which Member States can do it and, as has already been said, many Member States have already started along this road, so there is no reason to believe that others are not going to follow if they are given the toolkit and the suggestions of how this should be done.
Firstly, I would like to say that I do not believe in mandatory targets. The impact assessment does not support mandatory targets without reservation. It quite clearly states that it is one of the things that can be done. I do not support mandatory charging either. Again, it is one of the things which can be done, but it is not the only thing and it is not something that Member States should be compelled to do if they do not think it is the right way forward in their own countries. I also do not support the mandatory switch from plastic to biodegradable. That does not mean though that I should be characterised, as Mr Eickhout said, as some kind of dinosaur. Not at all. It is how you get there. There is an adage that you catch more wasps with honey than you do with vinegar and I suggest they think about it."@en1
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