Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-28-Speech-4-145"
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"en.19991028.4.4-145"2
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"Mr President, the enormous pressure which the Council, this Parliament and the fishing industry had to put on the Commission has finally led to the achievement of a mandate for negotiation, hardly a month before the termination of the fisheries agreement with Morocco. It is never late if the outcome is good. And at least we have a good mandate, above all in view of its ability to seek different forms of possible cooperation and even new legal formulas which may allow us to maintain satisfactory fishing relations for both parties.
However, we should regret the delay, which has created public alarm and a nervous state within the fleet which could have been avoided, and the speculation and declarations which may do more harm than good to negotiations which, given the importance of the agreement, should be held in a discreet, calm and cordial environment. But also because, at this stage, a halt in fishing activities seems inevitable, which will necessitate, as happened at the time of the expiry of the previous agreement, a search for extraordinary Community funds to finance time when the fleet is forced to remain in port.
I am not going to repeat the arguments which other Members have given and which illustrate the enormous importance of this agreement and its socio-economic repercussions. But I do want to insist that, for all these well-known reasons, the fleet is in suspense, and since it also has to pay for an ever increasing proportion of the fisheries agreements, it has stated that it is not prepared to not receive information regarding the progress of the negotiations. Natural discretion and reserve is one thing but secretiveness towards those who have everything to lose is another thing altogether.
Unfortunately, Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries knows very well what it feels like to beg for information from here and there amongst the negotiators, even in these times of transparency and cooperation which we have just inaugurated.
For this reason, like the industry itself, I believe that this time – and in this case I am particularly sorry that the Council is not here, because it is to them that I mainly address my comments – we must stand firm and show that, even though we have spent years asking and begging to be able to take part, as simple observers, in the negotiations of the fisheries agreements, this participation can no longer be postponed, Mr President. It is the case that, within the meagre budget which fishing represents in Community funding, the agreement with Morocco implies a relatively significant amount, so much so, Mr President, that it is the only agreement for which we are asked for our assent. We are therefore legally bound to the result of the negotiations and we have, therefore, the full right to first-hand information, without having to wait for the charity of representatives of the Council or the Commission who may come to inform us third-hand whenever they can or whenever it suits them.
The citizens also demand information and we are the representatives of those citizens, elected by them and, for this simple reason, we have acquired the responsibility, in this case, to at least be informed of what is happening.
Therefore, Mr President, I hope that the question of observers, which appears in at least one of the motions for resolution also signed by my group, is taken seriously for once. And to this end I ask, as other Members have done as well as the motion for a resolution, that this be, once and for all, a priority issue in the next tripartite meeting."@en1
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