Poznan, 12/12/2008
European Parliament must do all in its power to strengthen Council decisions on climate change
MEPs representing the European United Left/Nordic Green Left Bairbre de Brún (Ireland), Jens Holm (Sweden) and Roberto Musacchio (Italy), who are attending the UN climate change talks in Poznan this week, were strongly critical of the draft decisions emerging from the European Council on climate change today and said that the European Parliament must do everything in its power to strengthen these over the next few days.
Said Bairbre de Brún: ”The Council draft decisions are very disappointing and not as strong as they should be. We must do all that we can to strengthen this package of legislation in advance of the European Parliament vote next week. If the EU sends a signal that effective actions to tackle climate change can only happen in times of prosperity, how can Europe possibly ask developing countries to act now?”
Jens Holm said he considered ”unacceptable that more than 50% of EU reductions will be done in other countries. This undermines Europe’s credibility as being a pioneer in the combat against climate change.” However, he remarked that one of the only positive things in the Council’s texts is that there is some earmarking and a decision that 50% of revenues should be used for climate adaptation in both developed and developing countries.
According to Roberto Musacchio ”the Council’s text is not good, not acceptable. It confirms my view that governments have no real understanding of the climate situation. We must all remember that we are in a co-decision procedure, so the European Parliament’s position is very important and this position will be confirmed within the next week. Our group will be doing its utmost to change the Council proposal.”
GUE/NGL Press
Gianfranco Battistini +32 475 64 66 28
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 842 320 – Press contact in Poznan