madam president i would also pay tribute to mme lulling who has been tenacious to say the least in promoting and bringing this issue to the floor of the parliament
commissioner i would also thank you for an impressive list of activities that the commission is undertaking into this grave issue and if anything i think we are looking for a greater degree of funding and coordination as well
there is a risk that different bits of the institutions are doing a lot of good work but we do not necessarily tie it together
i think that is where this debate can shed some light
it is a serious issue
the miners of old took canaries down into the mines with them to warn of poisonous gases
they warned of poisonous gases by dying
that was bad news for the canaries but good news for the miners
our concern is that the bees of europe are doing essentially the same sort of service for us
a third of the eu's food one in three mouthfuls of food can be linked to bee pollination
there is a catastrophic decline in bees and we must take action at european level
scientists are agreed that there has been a decline
we have heard already how severe it has been but we are less clear as to what has caused it
is it the use of pesticides
is it climatic conditions
is it parasites and mites and other diseases perhaps beyond our control
commissioner i would also mention to you specifically the bumblebee conservation trust at stirling university in scotland which has done groundbreaking work into this
europe is not short of expertise
what we need to do is to tie it together
i think the text before us has a number of concrete actions which would take us in that direction particularly apicultural set-aside biodiversity zones even alongside roads and unproductive land research on pesticides surface water and consideration of aid
as we have heard already if we can find a billion euros to inflict on african development i think we can find money to fund our own research
it is right that we see eu action on this and dare i say this does constitute a pretty coherent plan b where plan a the common european agricultural policy has failed europe's bees
i do think we need to see a greater complementarity of actions already on-going to alleviate that situation
