International

The European Union continues to export ever-increasing quantities of asbestos to the Ukraine, despite the fact that its manufacture and use are now banned across the 25 EU member states. Poland and Hungary are amongst the countries selling their old stock of asbestos eastwards. This scandal was revealed by Dmytro Skrylnikov of the Ukrainian Association of Environmental Law, one of the speakers at the Asbestos Conference, organised by the SP's European Parliament group and taking place in Brussels today and tomorrow.

SP Euro-MPs Erik Meijer and Kartika Liotard reacted with outrage to the revelation, declaring in a joint statement that: "The production of and trade in asbestos is forbidden by law within the EU, the result of a long struggle and not before hundreds of thousands of victims have died or been set on course for a premature and painful death. It is unbelievably hypocrisy that EU member are now selling materials containing asbestos to a neighbouring country, while its use here is banned. We demand that the Europese Commission put an immediate stop to this practice." The two immediately put down an official parliamentary question demanding to know what the Commission intended.

Held in the European Parliament itself, the Asbestos Conference attracted over a hundred delegates from twenty-five countries, as well as many members of the public.