20/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - The co-president of the Greens Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said that resorting to the precautionary principle was justified in order to react to the risk for aviation caused by the ash from the volcanic eruption in Iceland. This was not a rule but it was “fair”, given the danger, to apply this principle pending the results of scientific analyses allowing other scenarios to be envisaged. “The precautionary principle is being criticised because after 4 or 5 days the major airlines have financial problems”, Cohn-Bendit said, not understanding all the “fuss” being made on this matter. If flights had remained as scheduled, he said, and if there had been an air disaster, this would have caused a scandal and there would have been criticism of our lack of political courage, subject to financial considerations alone. (A.B./transl.jl)