Strasbourg, 04/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - In its resolution following the explosion in Toulouse (see EUROPE of 3 October, p.12), "deeply shocked by the terrible accident", the European Parliament expresses its sympathy and solidarity with the victims, families and devastated populations", before urging the European Union to draw lessons from the tragedy.
On national governments faced with this type of catastrophe, it calls for total transparency as to the causes, criminal or accidental, of these attacks on the integrity of persons so as to determine due responsibilities.
On all Member States, it recommends: 1) to begin an in-depth revision of their town and country planning around sites at risk, including at tax level, to relocate industrial sites at risk in the perspective of sustainable development, reconciling concerns for safety, employment and the environment; on behalf of the solidarity the Union always claims in its development co-operation policy, it forcefully opposes any attempt at relocating hazardous sites to countries where environmental and social standards are lower than those in force in the Union; 2) to provide themselves with skilled and specialised inspectors in sufficient numbers and to draw up minimum qualification criteria for these people so as to ensure homogenous safety of classified sites in the Union.
On the European Commission, it calls to: 1) submit its draft directive as soon as possible on environmental liability. Parliament would indeed like to see the legal liability of industrialists and authorities responsible for town and country planning for the occupation of ground better defined and enhanced, and for industrialists to take on a more substantial share of the burden in compensating people injured and in repairing the damage; 2) encourage the respect of the Seveso II Directive by publishing in three months a list of all sites in the Union raising concern or, in case of accident, could cause damage on a scale similar to Toulouse; Parliament, indeed, states that it is "deeply concerned" at the fact that no Member State had, on expiry of the deadline given for transposing the directive, met this obligation, and that today six infringement proceedings were underway for non-compliance or inadequate compliance with the directive; 3) consider that the current rationale of "risk-management", inherited from the time of the Seveso disaster, is outdated, and that it is henceforth necessary and urgent to base any draft amendment to the legislation on a rationale of risk-prevention; 4) base the revision of the Seveso II Directive on: a tightening of safety and control standards; the broadening of the directive's field of application; more stringent standards for industrial waste in water and the atmosphere; extension of safety perimeters, applicable retroactively; improving public information on the risk people are exposed to and measures to take in case of a catastrophe; organisation of epidemiological studies in zones close to hazardous sites; strengthening the role of the hygiene and safety committees of the companies concerned and more account being taken of the opinions of the workforce and trade union organisations; give thought to the role of the bureau responsible for the follow-up of the Seveso II Directive at European level. Parliament would also like that, when the revision takes place, "the Union to consider, in the framework of sustainable development, the utility of purpose of certain chemical products and certain manufacturing processes today obsolete". With an amendment by the EPP-ED, GUE/NGL and UEN groups, adopted by 361 in favour, 164 against and 12 abstentions, Parliament also calls for the re-establishment of an emergency budget heading so that national, regional and local aid may be complemented by financial assistance from the Union in case of natural, technological or environmental disasters (EUROPE recalls that this budget heading was abolished by the budgetary authority, i.e., the EP and Council);
Finally, Parliament calls for everything to be done at European Union level, notably by the allocation of adequate financial and human means, to strengthen co-ordination of existing civil protection means, so that in case of emergency, resources that may be mobilised in Member States are known and may be rapidly mobilised.