Wednesday, January 26, 2005

EU dirty little Belgium

Don't you just love the Chinese new agency Xinhuanet. An organ of the totalitarian Peoples’ Republic, it is a model of tranparency when it comes to reporting the affairs of the EU, and puts the commission to shame (there's a moral in there somewhere).

It its latest report, it tells us that Belgium is the biggest polluter of all EU member states.

The Flanders International Radio station quoted figures from the Environment Sustainability Index for 2005 jointly produced by environment centres of Yale and Columbia universities - being presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland - indicating that Belgium places 112th out of 146 countries surveyed in the report.

The Index, based on 21 different indicators relating to environmental pollution, death rates and fertility problems, is designed to show how each country will be able to protect the environment in the next 10 years, the report said.

Belgium has already improved its Index ranking this year, climbing from 127th place last year, but is still the lowest ranked country in the EU.

The country's poor performance in the Index comes just hours after the international environment organisation Greenpeace attacked Belgium for having an incoherent environment policy and of funding polluting energy projects in other countries.

No there’s something for Margot Wallström, erstwhile environment commissioner, to look into when she goes for her jolly little walks with her husband each morning. Perhaps she'll do a Blog on it.

And while we're about it, let's not hear any more of this "dirty man of Europe" nonsense about Britain shall we?

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