02/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - When Kofi Annan addressed the European Parliament at the ceremony awarding him the Sakharov prize, focussing on the problem of emigration (see EUROPE of 30 January, p.4), French Green MEP Marie Anne Isler Béguin lodged a written statement at the EP calling for the EU to establish 'ecological' refugee status to deal with the increasing number of environmental catastrophes traumatising and impoverishing entire regions of the world.