madam president i find what the commissioner has said rather disappointing
i know that he is standing in for mr dimas and could not help but read out what was given to him but i think we need rather more than that
environmental legislation is something that most people perhaps all people in this chamber are in favour of perhaps even including ukip who are apparently not here and are perhaps ironing their union jacks
the trouble is that we do not know what is happening in the member states and the proposals from the european commission go only a very little way to improving that situation
we in the committee on the environment public health and food safety are still in favour of having a directive rather than a recommendation
i do not myself see why we could not have a general directive regarding environmental inspections and specific rules attached to specific directives where that is appropriate
let me then turn to the question of an eu environmental inspection force
it is perhaps a little strange that this idea comes forward from the mouth of a british conservative vote blue go green but we do need this because otherwise the commission is entirely dependent on the member states for the information that they choose to give it
it is extraordinary that nine years after the landfill directive came into force spain is now being prosecuted before the european court of justice for having sixty zero illegal landfills taking up more than half-a-million tonnes of illegally dumped waste
we think we know what is happening south of naples
the birds directive adopted in nineteen seventy-nine is still being widely neglected
the commission often finds that its prosecutions before the court of justice on environmental matters are initiated by private citizens
i do not think that this is good enough
we should tell the people of europe that we cannot be sure that the environmental legislation which we are adopting is being complied with
given the fact that we are now looking at climate change legislation that is very serious
we must return to the issue of an eu environmental inspection force which i fully support
