Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, before I begin talking about the substance of the matter, I would naturally like to express my solidarity with the victims and their families. I believe that the House has today shown its solidarity, which, in my view, is also essential. Secondly, my thoughts are also with those of my fellow Members who are more directly involved, due to their responsibilities in the region. Nor should we forget to praise the efficiency of everyone who immediately rushed to the scene of the disaster to provide assistance, such as the fire services and hospital staff, and of everyone who played a part in organising the support network for the victims and their families. We must also praise the extensive measures of solidarity announced by the Prime Minister during his visit last Friday to Toulouse, which will enable life to return to a normal footing – if that were at all possible – by re-housing those who have lost their homes and getting children back into school as quickly as possible. There is also an inquiry underway into the causes of the explosion. We must have confidence in the French authorities to carry out this inquiry carefully, with a desire for transparency and with a determination to succeed. In addition to this, what can we do at European level? In my view, we must all shoulder our responsibilities, at our own level. You mentioned this, Commissioner, and I would like to thank you for your comments about France’s responsibility concerning its obligations under the Seveso directive. What you said is important. You also mentioned the debate that is underway on how to best reconcile land use planning, environmental risk, industrial risk and employment. The work that you have carried out with the aim of revising the Seveso directive should take into account every aspect of this balance. Many other Members, in addition to myself, will take part in this debate on additional measures which could be envisaged, including at a European level, particularly with regard to monitoring. There is, nonetheless, a point that I would like to come back to, which is the issue of emergency aid. Admittedly, we all know that this is a difficult debate, one that was opened during the re-negotiation of Agenda 2000. But can we just sit back and watch the disasters that have struck France – namely, the sinking of the Erika, the storms of December 1999 and now the explosion in Toulouse – without demonstrating some European solidarity? We must find a way to do this, if not through the use of a heading on emergency aid, perhaps we could see whether there is some leeway within the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) so that, in addition to this strict set of zones that we have put in place, there may be room for a small solidarity package, so that Europe can also manage in difficult circumstances. Secondly, I hope that the Commissioner will do everything she can at a European level and beyond to remind everyone of their responsibilities, in order to allow land planning policies to take into account, in their fiscal dimension as well, the difficult balance that we must achieve, and also so that the leaders of industry shoulder their responsibilities when compensating victims and repairing the damage.

Political group: PSE