European Parliament
President.
Question No 4 by Marie Anne Isler Béguin 
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Subject: Making agreements between the EU and third countries conditional on ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
The EU is actively involved, in particular via its ECHO programme, in dealing with ecological disasters throughout the world. Such disasters, which are increasing in scale, are the result of decades of ecological negligence and may eventually outstrip the EU's ability to provide assistance.
The EU is a party to the Kyoto Protocol; it is also the world's leading economic and trading power.
Why does the Council not tackle the causes of environmental disasters which affect the world as a whole, before they occur, by making ratification of the Kyoto Protocol a prerequisite for negotiations and agreements between the EU and third countries?

