Extracts from the Keynote speech by Antonio TAJANI, EP President during the High level conference on Oceans - the future of the blue planet in the European Parliament in Brussels.

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

conference

protection of ocean (T)

Oceans - the future of the blue planet: Extracts from the Keynote speech by Antonio TAJANI, EP President

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Our policies at the European Union need to take a leadership role and have got to set an example to all players on the world stage. We want to work on better synergies between industries and the environment. We want to make sure that everybody assumes their responsibilities.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Today there are 150 million tonnes of plastic in our oceans and every year an additional million tonnes are added to that. If we continue at this rate, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. And this damages ofcourse our environment, but it also damages our economy. And it also damages our tourism industry and the fishing sector as well. 70% of objects that pollute our seas are single use objects, single use products. And that is why the European Parliament decided to ban single use plastics by 2021. If we were to recycle 1 million tonnes of plastic, that would be equivalent to removing one million cars from our streets. So, it is very important to incentivise this circular economy. Recycling urban waste and reusing them. It is very important for the future. 

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We want to keep the leadership in sustainable fishing. This is the way we are going to keep the legislature on the regulation of data.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, We want a Europe that is more friendly towards towards our oceans. We have to continue on this route that we took with regards to COP24 in Katowice in December. And we also want to have concrete agreements. This is why we need all of you. This is a fight that we have to work on together.