mr president many of us at last are beginning to realise that our planet is not indestructible and that it indeed has an expiry date which we humans through our not so wise actions are bringing drastically closer
there are of course still some doubting thomases not least in our own house but the number is fast getting smaller as they overcome the limitations of self-imposed extreme dogmatism or free themselves from third-party sometimes suspect manipulations
the eu should be and is at the forefront of the fight to save our environment and the series of pieces of legislation aiming at combating climate change which are currently being debated in parliament are very welcome proof of this
but to be truly beneficial such legislatures must be substantive and be implemented effectively and in good time
as always some compromises have to be made and this has been the case also with the corbey report on monitoring and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from fuels
it has to be said that the rapporteur has put up a very enviable and sustained fight to counteract the watering-down effects of the council positions and to a large extent i believe she has been successful
for this achievement i congratulate her
it has to be said also that during the hard negotiations the rapporteur kept all shadows regularly and fully informed and thus the resulting cooperation was such that it gave mrs corbey a strong hand at the negotiating table
the compromise package achieved deals satisfactorily enough under the circumstances on most controversial issues involved such as biofuels metallic additives and the sulphur content of some fuels and my group fully supports it
